F 74 
.C4 C58 
Copy 1 



THE 



COMMEMORATION 



OF THE 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



OF THE 



jpirst Ct)urct). Ct)arlestoV»n, iWass 

November 12, 1882. 






THE 



COMMEMORATION 



TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



Jftrst Ct)urdj, CijarUstoton, JHass. 



November 12, 1882. 






PRIVATELY PRINTED. 

1882. 




33" 



Sermon 

By rev. ALEXANDER McKENZlE, D.D. 
Br JAMES F. HUNNEWELL. 



BY 

EEV. RUFUS ELLIS, D.D., ' ' REV. HENRY M. DEXTER, D.D. 
HON. CHARLES DEVENS, REV. A. S. FREEMAN, D.D., 
REV. A. S. TWOMBLY. 



DISCOURSE. 



Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest tiiou 
forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart 
from thy heart all the days of thy life ; but teach them thy sons, 

AND THY sons' SONS. Deut. W. d. 



IT was the steadfast belief of the Fatliers of New England 
that the hand of God works in the affairs of men. 
From the beginning they traced his purpose moving persist- 
ently forward towards the accomplishment of his design. 
Men might work with it or against it; kings might favor 
or oppose it ; nations might ally themselves with it, or set 
themselves in array to defeat it; the will of God pressed on, 
neither changed in form nor lessened in force. Within the 
purpose of God they saw human freedom, whicli it was their 
glory to accept and employ. They believed that man's liberty 
comes from God's sovereignty, and that it is his decree that men 
shall be free. Their thought was expressed in the robust and 
reverent words of their own period, which declare that God 
" hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." In this confi- 
dence was their strength. They set themselves to the obedient 
and intelligent working out of the divine purposes. In this faith 
they were willing to go or stay, to live or die. They would 
have been glad to sing the woi'ds of one of our own poets in 
this later day : — 

" The word of the Lord by night 
To the watching Pilgrims came, 
As they sat by the seaside, 
And filled their hearts with flame." 



This lias been the faith of this church through the past 
which wc are now reviewing. It is this which gives its chief 
interest and value to the record we are reading. Upon this 
phm liistory is not an account of detached events, which have 
been subject to the varying tastes and principles and experiences 
of different generations. It is the record of a purpose held by 
a master-will, and reaching to a predetermined end. It has 
dignity and unity. It deserves to be written and retained. 
The father may instruct the son, whose life is to move in the 
same plane. The son may draw wisdom from the experience 
of the father, to whose career he joins his own. It is not the 
past, then, which we are studying, as if it were a finished thing. 
It is the present in which the past still has its being, with 
which it is to live on to the great consummation. We are 
looking through the years of the life of a church. We may 
surely expect to sec here the divine thought and plan clearly 
revealed, and to be instructed concerning the divine will for the 
days which are our own. 

It is not for me to tell in detail the story of the years which 
have gone over this church. That has been already written, 
and will be told again by one " to the manner born." Few 
places have had their annals more fully opened ; few churches 
have had their history more completely narrated. The town 
and the church deserve their fame. It is for me to trace out 
certain courses of principle and of influence which are discov- 
ered here, and which are to continue to work with power in 
the years to come. 

Tlie history of our New England churches is a history of 
men. It describes the action, not of kings or armies or hier- 
archies, but of individual men, in whose separate personality 
was a common belief, and a common will. The beginning is so 
recent, and the record so full, that we can count the men, tell 
their names, read their biography, mark their contribution to 
the common stock of manhood and religion. When we run back 
the line of the life of this ancient church, we are not able to 
stop at the end of two hundred and fifty years. If this be 
necessary in making up the calendar, it is not permitted in 
making up the history. At the point from which this anniver- 



sary is modestly reckoned there were certain ceremonies of 
convenient re-organization, l)ut it was of men and women who 
had been living here, and had been associated in the cluirch 
here. They were separated from persons wlio had been with 
them in chnrch-fellowship, and who had made to themselves 
new homes on the other side of the river. It does not seem 
eqnitable that those who remained liere should lose two years 
of church life because others had gone away from them. In- 
deed, if the Rev. William Blackstone — the Church of England 
clergyman, " who left England because he liked not the ' Lord's 
Bishops,' and Boston, afterwards, because he liked not the 
' Lord's brethren ' " — had been content to live by himself in his 
solitary cottage, and had not enticed the governor, and the peo- 
ple who were here, to settle about his excellent spring, the sep- 
aration might have been deferred, perhaps, until there were 
more to remain than to leave. It is fair, certainly, that this 
church should claim a share in the two years which were ferried 
across the stream. They form, at least, an introductory chap- 
ter in this history, to be written and read as an essential part 
of the record. 

We go back, therefore, to the 30th of July, old style, or the 
9th of August, 1630. It was a time of trouble in the colony. 
Men were suffering and dying. Bread was becoming scarce, 
and the summer was passing with small promise of relief. 
Capt. William Pearce had gone to Ireland for provisions. They 
did what they could, for they were men of great good sense, 
who joined works and faith. But they were God's people and 
were here by his command. To him they turned for relief, and 
that midsummer day was devoted to fasting and prayer. The 
prayer took on a definite and permanent form. They remem- 
bered for what end they had been brought to these shores, and 
they set themselves promptly to the execution of their pur- 
pose, God's purpose. On that day four men signed the cove- 
nant by which they bound themselves, solemnly and religiously, 
to walk in all their ways according to the rule of the Gospel, 
and in all sincere conformity to God's holy ordinances, and in 
mutual love and respect each to other, so near as God should 
give them grace. This was a church covenant, and by their act 



they constituted a church. It is probable that this covenant 
was written by Governor Wintlirop. " That old covenant," 
remarks the present distinguished representative of that name, 
" is one under which any man might well be willing to live and 
to die." It is quite possible that the men who signed it at the 
first did not perceive the full import of their act, or consider 
that they were parting finally from the government and the 
methods of the church to which they belonged, and making a 
part of the beginning of a new church in the new land. But 
the covenant looks forward and declares a purpose and a faith 
Avhich were equal to the work committed to their hands. 
"Meantime, beyond all doubt," — I quote again the words of 
the Winthrop of our time, — " that day, that service, that cove- 
nant, settled the question that Congregationalism was to be the 
prevailing order, and for a long time the only order, in early 
New England. Nor, let mc add, have I ever doubted, for a 
moment, that Congregationalism was the best and the only 
mode of planting and propagating Christianity in this part of 
the country in those old Puritan times." 

But let us look for a momejit at the four signers of this 
covenant. They had been brought by the most wise and good 
providence of the Lord Jesus Christ into this part of America, 
in the bay of Massachusetts. Being here, they were desirous 
to unite into one congregation, or church, "under the Lord Jesus 
Christ our head." Who were these men ? It is the thoughtful 
remark of a careful observer, that among the Massachusetts 
colonists " the religious and political elements are more marked 
in the views and pui-poses of the men of the eastern counties 
of England," wdiile " the commercial element existed more 
visibly among the adventurers from the western counties of 
Dorset and Devon." The former came to be known as " the 
Boston men : " the latter as " the Dorchester men." Now the 
four men who first signed the church covenant here were all 
from the eastern part of England. John Winthrop was born 
in the county of Suffolk, on the extreme eastern coast. 
Thomas Dudley was born in Northampton. Isaac Johnson 
w^as born in Rutland, and the Lady Arbella was the daughter 
of the Earl of Lincoln. John Wilson, whose name, though he 



9 

was the minister, was modestly written last of the four, was 
born at Windsor, in Berkshire. These were all, therefore, 
from that part of England which furnished the religious and 
political elements of the colonial life. Whatever importance 
we may give to this matter of locality, it is certain that in the 
men themselves these elements held the conspicuous and con- 
trolling place. Familiar as this general statement is, it is 
well from time to time to assert it and illustrate it. It is the 
potent and indispensable feature in the origin of this church, 
this town. Leave out anything else, and this settlement could 
have been made. Leave out this, and the settlement would not 
have been made. Other men might have built houses and 
founded cities on these shores ; but such communities as these 
would never have been made. Different causes would not have 
produced these results. Society would not have centred in the 
church under different conditions. We are dealing only with 
things which are. 

Let us look for a moment at the man who heads this cata- 
logue of names. The first governor of Massachusetts would 
have been a clergyman, probably, had not the persuasion of 
his friends induced him to adhere to the profession of the law. 
But he was a man of deep spiritual thought, and willing to 
exercise "in the way of preaching" when it was necessary. 
His " religious experiences," recorded by his own hand, have a 
charm in the reading which has reminded his biographer of Bax- 
ter and Bunyan. In England he was called into the counsels 
of the Massachusetts Company, whose " maine pillars," as he 
described them, were " gentlemen of high quality and eminent 
parts, both for wisdom and godlinesse " who were "determined 
to sit still if I deserte them." -It was then that the patent and 
government were to be transferred. Colonization was to be- 
come a larger fact, with more force and more freedom. The 
times were moving, and these men were moving with them. 
Already, as early as 1622, royalty had given the name to the 
state rising out of the sea, when Prince Charles called it New 
England. They were to make the state more than a name. 
It was more than that in their design. Those were troublous 
times for such men. The king was entering on the path which 



10 

bronglit him to the block. Laud and his subordinates were 
ruling- the church in tlie interest of despotism. Parliament 
"wafe dispensed with. The instruments of government were 
proclamations, the star-chamber, and the courts of high-com- 
mission. Foreseeing the disastrous days which were awaiting 
the land, Winthrop looked for " nearer communion with tlie 
Lord Jesus Christ, and more assurance of his kingdom." With 
the spirit of prophecy upon him, he wrote to his wife : " If the 
Lord seeth it will be good for us, he will provide a shelter and a 
hiding-place for us and others ; ... if not, yet he will not forsake 
us." That was May 15, 1629. On the 26th of the following 
August, at Cambridge, perhaps within the university w'hich 
gave to New England so many " of her brightest luminaries 
and noblest benefactors," the agreement was signed by which 
Winthrop and eleven others bound themselves '• to pass the 
seas (under God's protection) to inhabit and continue in New 
England." They guarded their purpose with careful provisions, 
but they wrote their names with a firm hand. They made this 
engagement "having weighed the greatness of the work in re- 
gard of the consequence, God's glory and the church's 
good ; " words which deserve to be written on the walls of 
these churches and at the corners of the streets. 

In addition to this agreement there remains in Winthrop's 
handw'riting a statement of nine reasons justifying and en- 
couraging the plantation in New England. These reasons are 
full of a humane and religious spirit. It will be a service to 
the Church to extend its influence into the remote parts of the 
earth. It will enlarge the worth of manhood and promote 
righteous living. "It appeares to be a worke of God for the 
good of His Church." The rulhig motive of the first governor, 
the first signer of this church covenant, is perfectly clear. 
Dudley and Johnson, who signed the church covenant with him, 
signed also with him the agreement at Cambridge in 1629. 

It is true that these men had commercial relations among 
themselves and with men in England. Of course they had, 
and they dignified trade and commerce by bringing them into 
such connection. These were not altogether inhospitable shores. 
The fisheries along this coast were well known. They had drawn 



11 

the ships of France and Holland, and they brought ships from 
the southern ports of Great Britain. The emblem of this bold 
and characteristic enterprise has long hung before our legisla- 
tors under the gilded dome. There were indefinite opportuni- 
ties to trade with the Indians, and to carry into the homes of 
England the furs of the wilderness. 

Business of some kind, remuneration for industry, the means 
of livelihood, must enter into the being of a state. Not even 
for religious men, exiles for liberty, the founders of a nation, 
— not even for stout Puritans, — was there such vitality in the 
air of these forests, or the breath of the sea which lay along 
these shores, that they could live without bread. Their faith 
was strong, but not so simple that they fancied the skies over 
the new world were dark with falling manna, and the gloomy 
rocks were bursting with w^ater-brooks. They belonged in civ- 
ilized communities, and were familiar with the fact that in 
these stores and shops, fields and farms, money and merchan- 
dise, have their place, as really as churches and schools and 
homes. Their godliness was of that practical sort which in- 
cludes prudence and economy and industry and enterprise, 
and holds the promise even of the life which now is. John 
Winthrop was over forty years old when he engaged to lead his 
company across the sea, and all his manliness was in all he 
did, — in his political engagements, in his commercial arrange- 
ments, in his spiritual designs, in the last request for the 
prayers of those who remaine din the old homestead when the 
Arbella sailed on her tedious voyage. " We are entered into a 
covenant with God for this work. . . . Let us choose life, that we 
and our seed may live, by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, 
for He is our life and our prosperity." Thus preached the 
almost reverend governor while they sailed. Scarcely had they 
touched the shore when they were formed into a church " in the 
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to his holy will 
and divine ordinances." When they held their first court of 
assistants on this side of the Atlantic, the first question pro- 
posed was : " How the ministers should be maintained ; " and 
it was decided that this should be " at the common charge." 
Here was our beginning. The east of England was on the 



12 

east of New England. This beginning was on our side of the 
river, at Mishawum. 

It may be promptly confessed that the amount of the religious 
element differed widely among different colonists. In some it 
was a passion ; in others an influence which shaded away until 
it was lost in the commercial spirit and the love of adventure. 
But in the men who created the plan, and gave it body and char- 
acter, it was the strong, controlling force. It is the summing 
up of a writer who has made our history his especial study, that 
" a deep religious design in the purpose of the leaders is the key 
to the enterprise." How pleasantly and harmoniously the two 
essentials are set forth in these sentences, written by Winthrop 
in 1080 ! In one letter : — " We here enjoy God and Jesus. 
Christ. Is not this enough? What would we have more?" 
In another: — "My dear wife, we are here in a paradise. 
Though we have not beef and mutton, etc., yet (God be 
praised) we want them not ; our Indian corn answers for all. 
Yet here is fowl and fish in great plenty." 

We are celebrating at this time the formation of a church. 
It was composed of the men who have been named, and others 
of a like mind. Soon there w^ere sixty-four men and thirty-two 
women who were in the covenant. On the 27th of August there 
was the formal completion of the organization of the church, 
when John Wilson was appointed Teacher ; and with him were 
associated a Ruling Elder and two Deacons. The institution of 
these officers was by those wiio chose them. The hands of the 
church rested in consecration upon their heads. It seemed a 
new way : they thought it an older and better way. 

Who were these ninety-sis persons who had become a church ? 
I do not repeat their names. Their character is described in 
their own words. They were persons whom the Lord Jesus 
Christ had " redeemed and sanctified to himself." I repeat the 
statement of their action. In his presence, solemnly and reli- 
giously, they promised and bound themselves to walk in all their 
ways '"■ according to the rule of the Gospel, and in all sincere 
conformity to his holy ordinances, and in mutual love and re- 
spect to each other," so near as God should give them grace. 
With this character, with this spirit, these men and women were 



13 

here, three thousand miles from EngHsh cathedrals and tribunals. 
The church was a necessity. What should it be ? To that 
question there was but one answer, and that is expressed in 
their covenant. What form should it have ? The practical 
answer to that question was almost as easy. They were greatly 
in earnest. They were concerned chiefly with essentials. They 
were in a new land, making new homes in a new community. 
Theybroughttheirpiety and good sense and independence, their 
learning and their experience, to the forming of that which was 
to be the centre of their life and their state. In England they 
might have varied their methods ; here they did as earlier 
colonists had done. No bishop but their own lifted his rod 
above them. No palace cast its long shadows on their path. 
The land was wide and the winds were free. Their enlarged 
souls exulted in their liberty. It was the liberty of prudent 
and religious men ; it was the liberty of intelligent men. It 
may be helpful to notice what books they had. Some were 
men of substance and culture. All of them felt the influ- 
ence of the writings which were affecting society. We stand in 
1630. Our present English Bible was first printed in 1611. It 
was still the new gift of God to men. Shakespeare died in 
1616, and Bacon in 1626, and George Herbert in 1632. They 
stood near these men, and had their works fresh from their 
hands. They were themselves able to make books. It is thought 
that during the first fifty years after the printing-press was set 
up here, more than three hundred separate publications were is- 
sued in Boston and Cambridge. Nearly two thirds of these 
were religious works in English, to which were added religious 
tracts and books in the Indian tongue. The books did not 
largely increase the world's literary wealth ; but, as another has 
strongly said of these men, "their virility created not so much 
letters as empire ; it contributed to found a people rather than to 
stamp a literature." The " fruit was in character rather than 
in letters." The culture of the leaders of thought and action 
here is suggested by the fact that nearly one hundred university 
men joined the new colony between 1630 and 1617. Of these, 
two thirds were from Cambridge. There these settlers were as- 
sociated with scholars and the things of scholars. Some " had 



u 

trodden tlie banks of the Cam with John Milton and Jeremy- 
Taylor." 

If any other testimony were wanted to the literary taste and 
the love of learning of the men who were here, it would be 
found in their early provision for education ; in the setting up of 
a college in an open field, and the enriching it out of their pov- 
erty. In all this the religious element was conspicuous. The 
college must be for the church, as the church was for the laud. 

On whatever side we view them, the men who made the settle- 
ments here and along this shore were no common men. They 
stood confronting the future. But they had a past. They were 
Englishmen, and the history of England was their history. Her 
great names and great deeds and great hopes were theirs. 

They were members of the Church of England, and her saints 
and scholars, her treasures of truth and righteousness, her glo- 
ries and her duties, were theirs. They had left England, but 
they were Englishmen still ; and in her name did they set up 
their banners upon these hills, and up and down this coast. They 
had left the stately buildings and the humbler structures where 
they had worshipped after the manner of their fathers. But the 
worship of the English Church they had not left, nor her truth, 
nor her trust. They were not content with her ways. They were 
offended by her spirit. They were harassed by her madness and 
cruelty. Some men of kindred disposition made for themselves 
new sanctuaries in England and on the Continent, and finally in 
this new land. These Puritans, while holding their allegiance 
to their church, were formed by circumstances, that is, by Prov- 
idence, into a new society. They had fellowship in a common 
purpose. Their piety took on new and freer forms for a more 
ardent life. Buildings and books l)ecame of less account. 
They found a temple where they wished to pray. They fixed 
their gaze upon the Book of God. Priests whom they could not 
respect receded behind the spiritual priesthood of which they 
read, and to one Shepherd and Bishop they pledged and paid 
their willing homage. This which was done here was but a 
part of a great movement which, in different methods, wrought 
wonders for England and for humanity. It is startling praise 
which has been written bv historians in England, that to the 



15 

Puritans " the English owe the whole freedom of their Consti- 
tution," and that they " were the depositaries of the sacred fire 
of liberty." It was a long work which tliey had to do. It was 
the completing of the Reformation, and the purifying and enno- 
bling of the land. " In the Revolution of 1688 Puritanism did 
the work of civil liberty which it had failed to do in 1642." 
Thus writes a late historian of the English people. I add these 
words of the same calm writer : " Slowly but steadily it intro- 
duced its own seriousness and purity into English society, Eng- 
lish literature, English politics. The history of English progress 
since the Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been 
the history of Puritanism," 

The sturdy men who wrought so manfully may well be con- 
tent with the growing admiration which is given to them. 
Tliey were men. If their manners were stern, their hearts were 
strong. If their faults were rugged, their virtues were robust. 
If they drew apart from their fellows, they founded a home 
and a state for men out of all the earth. If the vessel was 
earthen, the treasure was gold. The form of the vessel 
may not have been tasteful sesthetically, but its lines have a 
comely look as it stands among the caskets and urns of kings 
and courtiers. 

In the work of the Puritans a part was done here. Much of 
the hardest work was done here. There were peculiar difficul- 
ties and hardships here and in England. There the contest 
was against men who were entrenched in the system it was 
desired to change. They were in power and were determined 
to retain their places. But the Puritans were numerous and 
strong, and their spirit was " as old as the truth and manliness 
of England." In England they had the strength and comfort 
and refinement of their own country, and with large resources 
contended for the triumph of their cause. They conquered. 
The victory of such men, with such a cause, is sure if the men 
have courage and patience. Time is on their side, and truth. 
They made the church feel their power and bend to their will. 
They brought royalty to the block, and enthroned the people's 
will. It needed years, but they had the years. What did they 
do here, the kindred of these men ? All outward circumstances 



16 

were different. Here was the wilderness. Only the Red man 
was near them. There was no church, no dignitary, no vener- 
able custom, no violent superstition or stubborn error. It was 
a wilderness, with trackless forests and barren fields, with 
frowning rocks and wintry storms, but with an ample oppor- 
tunity. Clinging to their charter, defending themselves against 
treachery and injustice, guarding their imperilled homes against 
savage cunning and cruelty, they gave themselves to the mak- 
ing of a state and a church. They made both. They took the 
years for the building of the state, but they made the church 
at once. For tliis they had all the materials and an open 
ground. Familiar as the story is, it is full of fascination. It 
is not for me to tell it to-day. They had the things essential to 
a church, and they cared for little more. They had themselves 
which was the grand requisite, and they were here with God 
and at his bidding. They had the Bible and they were free. 
What more was needed ? They had the clmrchly ideas of rev- 
erence, obedience, and the spirit of worship. To establish here 
the institution which they had left beyond the seas they neither 
attempted nor desired. They did not think to leave it so com- 
pletely ; they cherished natural and tender thoughts towards 
it ; they did not know that they were separating themselves 
from it when they took their last look at its towers and spires. 
But they had left it. Out of its doors they opened the New 
Testament to find what a Christian church was at the beginning ; 
and finding the divine model, as they believed, they formed the 
church. Christ alone was Lord ; the Bible alone was author- 
ity ; and all Christ's men were brethren. They made the town 
and the church after one idea. God was supreme ; man was his 
child ; man was able to govern himself under tlie law of God. 
A man was entitled to his vote in those things which concerned 
him, and was held to the responsibilities which belong with 
manhood and its liberty. 

It is to be remembered that they were men of years and of 
character and of learning, competent to read the New Testa- 
ment for themselves, and to conform to its teacliings They 
were likely to know what was suited to their condition and 
their design. They were here by the call of the Lord. Their 



n 

hearts and lives were open before him, and they consented to 
obedience at a cost. It is impossible to doubt that they were 
guided by the divine wisdom which they sought, and that in 
their work they followed the counsel of the Almighty. It is 
impossible not to believe in their judgment and their enlighten- 
ment, more than in the methods and maxims of those who were 
too blind to see the character of the men they were hounding 
to exile, too narrow and selfish to recognize the breadth of 
truth, tbe divinity of liberty, the sweetness of charity. There 
is a grandeur in the men who stood here, an earnestness, an 
intelligence, a piety, which make us confident that it was good 
work Avell done, which it was given to them to do, and to us to 
celebrate. Men who were possessed of their grand purpose, 
who counted themselves able to make a better England, justly 
esteemed themselves competent to make a church after the sim- 
ple rules and methods of apostolic days. Under the oak tree, or 
in the Great House which sheltered both church and state, they 
acted from their manhood. They did their work. To our eyes, 
at least, the hand of the Lord was with them. There was no 
sound of hammer or ax ; but there were prayers and songs. 
Their covenant has stood. Their churches live. Their work 
may have reached beyond their thought ; but their thought was 
large enough for their work. It is surprising to mark how 
simple their work was made for them. Stately ceremonies 
they could not have. High officials, there were none. An 
eminent writer, whose name is of special authority here, has 
called attention to the fact that we look in vain among the 
relics which have come down to us, and through the inventories 
of the property of the first settlers here, for the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. " Tbe book seems to have been as rare here 
as the holly and the mistletoe." Nor do we firid in their letters 
and sermons sentences and expressions which were taken from 
the book which before had been in constant use, and whose lan- 
guage must have been familiar. It is plain that they had come 
into freer modes of worship, which they found sufficient for 
their needs, and well suited to their condition. They went 
back to the New Testament and were content. 

Affairs abroad, if they knew of them, were suited to break 

3 



18 

them completely from the old ways, and those who made them; 
for Laud was flourishing in authority and tyranny, and five 
ministers had just been arraigned before the Court of High Com- 
mission, and among them John Cotton, the friend of John AVin- 
throp. As I think of the madness which ruled in tliat time tliere 
comes to my mind the shrewd saying of the Concord sage, that 
in 1775 our one benefactor in England was King George the 
Third. The time had come Avhen the colonies must enter 
upon the independence to which they could only be driven " and 
the inscrutable Divine Providence gave an insane king to Eng- 
land." By similar instruments Divine Providence had wrought 
in the earth a century and a half before, and what just rulers 
might have prevented tyrants effected, and the free church 
was made, and the beginning of the free state. 

Out of their high thought of manhood the nation has sprung. 
In their thought of an intelligent, religious, responsible man- 
hood, the nation must find its honor, and the stability o':' its 
life. Free churches, free schools, free communities, demand 
the strength which comes from the devout recognition of God's 
law, and steadfast obedience rendered unto it. So they 
believed. Their confidence has been our glory ; our self-con- 
fidence will be our shame and our ruin. We ought at least to 
be able to enjoy and to transmit that which has come down to 
us, and to be above the folly of trying upon society any experi- 
ments which are alien to the methods which worked so grandly 
in the beginning, and have been so often proved in later days. 

There is one word which is often used in connection with the 
work which was done by the first settlers upon this coast which 
is singularly expressive. It is the word plant. It was written 
in the cabin of the Mayflower, by rnen who had " undertaken, 
for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, a 
voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Vir- 
ginia." They did not propose to build a house or a city, which 
they could finish, but to plant a colony, which should take root 
in the ground, and rise into the air, and spread its branches 
abroad, and give pleasant shade and nourishing fruit. They 
did not know into what it would grow, but they had great faith 
in the seed, and in the rain and dew of heaven, in the sunshine. 



19 

and even in tlie storm, and in the rich virgin soil. They be- 
lieved that they were planting life, and that life would spring 
up; that the living seed would yield a living society and a liv- 
ing church. It was a handful of corn ; but the fruit is shaking 
like Lebanon. It was our Lord who said that the king(U)ni of 
Heaven is like to seed, which, when it is planted, grows into a 
tree. The parable is written here, with living illustration. 

The church here was formed with a covenant. It was a sim- 
ple and solemn compact, by which they bound themselves one 
to another, and all to Christ. But they had more than their 
covenant. If there were no written articles of religion, there 
were living articles of religion, based on the Holy Scriptures, 
declared in all their teaching, and in substantial agreement with 
the belief of the church from which they were separating them- 
selves. Their conviction of the importance of a settled reli- 
gious belief is beyond question. Their requisition of all who 
would join them, that they should agree with them in belief, and 
should give evidence that they were regenerate by the grace of 
God, is apparent in their teaching and their acts. It is a grave 
historic error to think that because those who planted religious 
institutions here had no articles of belief, arranged and num- 
bered, they had no creed and felt the need of none. It was 
with very clear and very decided convictions that they planted 
the. seed of state and church in a new world. 

For the purposes of this occasion I have reckoned the life of 
this church from the planting in 1630. Into the questions con- 
nected with the transplanting I will enter no further. The four 
men who first signed the covenant removed with many others 
across the river, and the church w^as planted there. But some 
who were of tlie church remained, and the seed which had not 
been taken fi'om the ground continued to grow. The covenant 
was signed again, with only such change in its terms as suited 
tlie new conditions of the signers, as residents and not new-com- 
ers. Thirty-five persons signed the covenant on the second, or 
twelfth, of November, 1632. It is a good list of names, as it 
stands at the beginning of the church records. Increase Now- 
ell was one of the assistants in the state and a ruling elder in 
the church, a man prominent and useful in public affairs, and 



20 

held in honor by the people. He sent two sons to Harvard Col- 
lege, one of whom entered the ministry, and in important sta- 
tions served the colony. More than any other man, Mr. Nowell 
"may be considered the father of the church and the town." 
It was good parentage. It is interesting to notice the name of 
the wife set into the name of the husband througliout this list, — 
Increase, Parnel, Nowell, Tho : Christian, Bcecher, and so on. 
Ralph and Richard ^prague are in the list, men who were 
living here two years before Winthrop's arrival. William, 
Ann :, Frothingham, give tiieir names to the covenant, as tliey 
gave their name to a family which for niany generations was to 
serve the church and honor the town. In Tho:, Elizab:, 
James, we have tlie name of the first j)astor of tlie church, after 
its new beginning, and his wife. It is a good list of men and 
women. They were strong in character, determined in purpose, 
able to bear their part in constituting the state and establishing 
the church. Their work remains to praise them. They have 
had successors worthy of them. Good men and women liave 
never failed. There have been good and learned ministers here 
from the beginning. The name of John Harvard and the fame 
of his devotion to sacred learning are abroad in the earth. The 
words of the saintly and sainted Budington have been read in 
your hearing this afternoon, recalling his venerable presence 
and the fidelity and higli service of his life. This day bringsi us 
near the anniversary of the departure from this world of James 
Browning Miles, whose abundant labors jiasscd into the wider 
service of the Prince of Peace. I could name more, the living 
and the dead, and the whole list would be read with thanks- 
giving. The sanctity of the ancient covenant has been regarded. 
The piety and heroism of the early signers have been renewed, 
with no break in the line. The truth of God has been preached 
in the sanctuary, taught to the children, sent up and down the 
streets. The hand of charity, which the fathers stretched out, 
has never been withdrawn, and the voice of the sons has reached 
further than theirs through the wide world, with its messages 
of grace. The sons and daughters have carried the ancient faith 
through the land, and the lands. Other churches have arisen 
around this centre, witnesses to the strength and beauty of the 



21 

truth which good men brought to these shores and good men 
have preserved. The fathers woukl praise the children, if tliey 
were here, and commend the work which lias never ceased. The 
^ hands of the men of the olden time would be stretched in ben- 
ediction over the heads of the men of to-day ; voices tremulous 
with age would bless them ; faces which found small leisure for 
smiles between the winters of the wilderness would laugh with 
joy at the fruitage of two hundz-ed and fifty summers. 

Those men are needed here now, you say, to fill up the ranks, 
to enlarge the gifts, to increase the prayers, to multiply tlie 
force ! But they have earned their rest. Their prayers are still 
with you who remain ; their lives live in every true heart. 
Their work is yours. It needs but their passion and patience to 
finish it with renown. The story of the years which have borne 
us to this day gives honor to those who first were here and to 
those who in successive generations have entered into their 
labors. That story should be told to the children. It should 
be in the hands and the heart of every member of this parish, 
and should stand as the commentary on the covenant, the illus- 
tration of the creed. 

We pay deserved honor to the men who made this church 
after the pattern they saw in the Mount. Let us pay honor to 
the land and the church in which they were born, out of which 
they came. They left England, but they brought the English 
spirit with them, and the English Bible. They left nothing 
which was essential to the Englishman. They were letting the 
English character rule when they set their faces towards the 
West. The English spirit never could be bound. The people 
rule. The divine right of kings lies within the people's right to 
be free. Kings are for men, not men for kings. The Sabbath 
is for man, not man for the Sabbath. The church, with all its 
offices, is for the people, not the people for the church. This is 
the English idea, which pays small respect to meridians. Yet 
the truth committed to the church, the promises made to it, the 
commission intrusted to it, were neither to bo altered nor aban- 
doned. That was the divine idea to which Englishmen bowed. 
To this church idea they loyally adhered, and for it made a nation. 
To certain things they clung with a tenacity which balanced the 



22 

readiness with which they parted with other tilings. For what 
they held to be essential they would be exiles and martyrs. 
Their liberty was under law. They did not suffer and endure 
for religious liberty so much as for religion. They were obedi- 
ent by nature ; only the obedience must be well placed. " In 
politics, the Puritan was the Liberal of his day," Dr. Palfrey 
has written. " The Puritan was a Scripturist, . . . the Puritan 
was a strict moralist," — the same impartial pen has written. 
They bowed their will and laid their life before the Bible, as the 
AVord of God. Truth, Duty, Righteousness, were their watch- 
words. No ships ever sailed, no villages ever rose, no churches 
ever opened their doors, under stricter laws than they acknowl- 
edged. In this broad land there was room enough for the state 
and the church in which they believed. Unwilling to have their 
work ruined at the start, jealous of interference, stern in their 
method of defence, they may have been. But they kept in their 
own place. If other men preferred other ways, the land was 
wide. 

I do not wish to claim for the Puritan all the virtues in per- 
fection. But where was there a taller, broader man in his 
time? We talk much of Liberality. It is too good a word to be 
carelessly used ; it has its limits which we must regard. I 
may be liberal with my own. Can I be liberal with that which 
is your own, or God's own ? The Puritan was free with that 
which was his. That which belonged to God, or to which he 
ascribed such ownership, he held with careful hand. The Bible, 
the Sabbath, the truths of morality and religion, it was not for 
him to enlarge or diminish. For himself, for his house, for the 
community in which he ruled, the divine proprietorship must be 
regarded. This is Fidelity, a word of as grand sound as Liber- 
ality, — a word more common in the New Testament, a word 
which enters into the judgment of the Great Day. One may 
question the Puritan's application of this principle, but from 
the principle itself no honest man withholds his approbation. 

The Puritans have done great honor to the Church of Eng- 
land. It is a fine testimony to it, that truth was held in such 
force and measure that men were willing to venture their lives 
upon it. They had found enough truth in it to be the beginning 



23 

of the kingdom of Leaven in this land. If they cared little for 
its luxuries, they were fond of its bread. It is to the honor of 
the English Church that it could raise up such men. They were 
a credit to it when they went out from its training to prove the 
value of it. They were a credit to the church when they rose 
up in defence of its purity and safety, forgetting its robes while 
they fought for its life, disowning its servants while they con- 
tended for itself. It is unjust to make a sweeping denunciation 
of the English Church, which has done so many glorious things 
and stood so stoutly for liberty, because of the madness of its 
leaders at this period. The king was not the people. The 
bishops were not the church. Men suffered at the hands of 
king and bishops, but as they turned away it was with a tender 
farewell and a tearful prayer. They had been taught to be true, 
and they had learned the lesson. They had inherited the Eng- 
lish spirit, and bravely they let it work its will. It is a rare 
witness to the English Church, that they were able to live away 
from home; that their virtue stood the strain of the outer world ; 
that they could transfer their devotion from stately minsters 
and jewelled altars to houses of logs and tables of plain wood ; 
that they could part with imposing ceremonials and keep the 
spirit of worship in its integrity ; that they could be free from 
ecclesiastical control, and govern themselves by the Word of 
God. We praise the men. Let us not withhold our admiration 
from the institutions which reared the men, and gave them a 
manhood which was strong and heroic, reverent and loyal, true 
and determined, the manhood which alone can constitute the 
state and the church. 

Brethren, the work of the men whom we celebrate is done. 
To-day is yours. To-morrow the church will be what you have 
made it. What profit shall you bring from these commemora- 
tive services, unless it be in the wise understanding of those who 
have been before you, and in new vigor for the will which must 
advance their work ? Remember, then, that these men were men 
of God. They were the followers of his Son. They received his 
Spirit. They believed the Bible and walked in its light. They 
kept the Sabbath-day holy. They had faith in prayer. They 
knew the stability of righteousness. They were willing to Avork, 



24 

to give, to suffer, to die, in the name of the Lord. Tlicy were 
brave, constant, earnest. Tiicy recognized an individual respon- 
sibility. In tiieir church every man had his part, and was 
essential to the well-being of the whule. These were the simple 
principles of the Puritan churches. They are the life of our 
Congregational churches to-day. Our churches are republics, 
with only the Lord for king. Upon every member rests a duty 
which it is needful that he should do. His counsel, his money, 
his prayer and service, his presence and faith, must be liberally 
bestowed. There can be little question that these principles, 
made efficient by the men of- this day, would renew the vigor 
which for two centuries and a half has been felt through this 
community. The past is with you. The ground is hallowed. 
The graves of holy men are close about you. The prayers of 
the saints are pleading before God. It is an hour for new cour- 
age, and for a new and brave beginning. It is a grand history. 
It is a hopeful prophecy. The time itself is good. We are re- 
peating in our day the rational process of the grand and simple 
time when the Puritan was doing his first work. He believed 
that reformation had not gone far enough, and was unwilling to 
stop at men who were but a little removed from himself He 
pushed back of them all, till he stood with the men who stood 
with Christ and heard his words. Then he was content and de- 
termined. He was prepared " to practise the Positive Part of 
Church Reformation and propagate the Gospel in America." 
The Puritan method has been revived. Men are again going 
back of human forms to the teachings of the Lord. Tiie Bible 
is rising into greater prominence. Its simple forms, its gracious 
teachings, its divine spirit, are drawing the hearts of men. Be 
glad of this Puritan revival. Enter into it and be true. Exalt 
the Gospel of God and live in its power, and God shall bless 
you. Change but a single word, Avhich I will not take from out 
the melody, and sing the English song again : — 

*' I will not give mine eyelids sleep, 

Nor shall my sword rest in my hand, 
Till we have built Jerusalem 

In England's green and pleasant land ! " 



25 

In the presence of your fathers and your heroes, renew your 
vows and move on. son of a noble line, — " Take heed to thy- 
self and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things 
which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart 
all the days of thy life ; but teach them thy sons and thy sons' 
sous." 



EVENING. 



A SKETCH 

OF THE 

HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHITRCH, CHARLESTOWN.i 

By JAMES FROTHINGHAM HUNNEWELL. 

IN July, 1630, several hundred English — men, women, and chil- 
dren — were trying to live in huts and tents on or around the 
Town Hill in Charlestown. They had recently escaped discomforts 
on the sea for privations on shore. Seven small vessels, that had 
brought them from kindred and former homes, lay in the river. 
Forests and wild lands, where there were men as wild, spread 
inland. There were no mines or great extents of fertile land, and 
there were few to welcome or to help them. Nearly all of the 
inhabitants were Indians, so called. Along the coasts of what we 
name New England there were only scanty groups of countrymen : 
in Maine perhaps five hundred persons ; in Rhode Island and Con- 
necticut were none ; in Massachusetts were a few, but little more 
than those at Salem, Beverly, and Lynn, at Dorchester and 
Plymouth ; there was one man on the neighboring peninsula of 
Boston, and on Noddle's Island, Samuel Maverick. 

Plainly reasons that had brought these people from their mother 
land to this Town Hill were strong, and principles that they estab- 
lished had a vital power, attested by the presence on the spot of 
their successors now that two centuries and a half have passed. 
The reasons for their coming, like the reasons for most of the great 
events of history, were of long growth. The Reformation in the 

1 Several parts of this article were not read on Sunday evening. Some 
subjects treated by Dr. McKenzie are mentioned here in order to complete the 
sketch. 



28 

sixteenth century had been marked by important changes in the 
thoughts and the belief of English people. The Eoman Church, 
acknowledged for a tliousand years, at length became no longer 
dominant. A large proportion of the people were, in some form, 
Protestants. These, while agreed substantially in faitli, had differ- 
ent opinions upon some points held to be of profound importance. 
Out of the religious change arose the Church of England, with the 
Bovereign, not the poi)e, as its appointed earthly head, and a 
reformed but yet conservative obsei^vance of some forms and words 
and usages that had been known since Christianity became an 
organized and wide-spread power. Within the Church, at first, 
there was, however, a great body, with a large amount of piety and 
learning, that desired still greater change. This, at length, in King 
James's reign, could be reduced, it has been stated, "to these four 
heads : j^urity of doctrine, the supply of the churches with good 
pastors, the Scriptural administration of church government, and 
the improvement of the Book of Common Prayer." Tlie advocates 
of greater change — and greater purity, as they believed — were 
known as Puritans. The Church of England became the ruling 
power ; and, world wide, ruling powers in church and state, when 
James I. was king, regarded a dissenter as a sort of rebel who 
should be suppressed. The Puritans were made to feel this fact. 

And thus a vigorous, intelligent, determined party chafed in 
England under rule from wdiich it naturally souglit relief or an 
escape; and sundry men within it were considering not only an 
escape, but realization of a grand conception. 

John Winthrop, a well educated, wealthy gentleman of rare and 
noble character, who lived at Groton in the pleasant rui-al lands of 
Suffolk; Thomas Dudley, once a soldier, later a good steward to 
the Earl of Lincoln ; Increase Nowell, well bred and long tried, 
among whose nearer ancestors or relatives was Alexander, the 
prolocutor of Queen Elizabeth's first convocation, so decisive to 
the Puritans ; John "Wilson, son of William, prebend of three of 
tlie grand old churches of Old England, — these and many others, 
scattered tlirough that country, thought and acted. 

Meanwhile different events prepared a way for them. At a time 
when, says Dr. Haven, English "colonization [of America] had 
been virtually abandoned in despair," two men to whom this 
country owes much, sought "a proper seat for a plantation" in 
New England. The illustrious friend of Shakespeare, the Earl of 
Southampton, largely paid the cost, in 1602, of an irai)ortant 



29 

voyage made by Bartholomew Gosnold directly to the Bay of 
Massachusetts, to Cape Cod and islands south of it. He brought 
back such good accounts of what he found that, four years later, for 
the purpose named, a charter was procured, "from which," con- 
tinues Dr, Haven, " the ultimate settlement of the United States, 
and the resulting heritage of territorial rights, are to be dated." 

It may be sufficient here to state that after various difficulties 
there was formed — November 3, 1620 — The Council at Plymouth 
in Devon for Planting and Governing New England in America. 
There were forty patentees of whom several were peers, the others 
men of consequence. From them the Pilgrims by the Mayflower 
obtained a patent dated June 1, 1621. From them, March, 1628, 
a grant was had of lands "extending from the Atlantic to the 
Western Ocean," and between a line " three miles north of the 
River Merrimac," to one "three miles south of the Charles." In 
one year after that, a Massachusetts Company was chartered, with 
the power to colonize, to govern, and repel by sea or land all per- 
sons who attempted the destruction or the detriment of planters. 
It, indeed, was a commercial and a planting company, and soon 
prepared to prosecute its business. 

" Meanwhile," wrote Dr. Palfrey, " a movement of the utmost im- 
portance, probably meditated long before, was hastened by external 
pressure." Puritans, who felt the strong repression of their prin- 
ciples in England, had resolved, but after " sorrowful reluctance," 
"to emigrate at once to the New World." Most of them were 
from the eastern counties, Suftblk, Lincolnshire, and the East 
Riding. The leaders were well educated, thoughtful, and far-look- 
ing men, with no small fortunes, and exalted purposes. The wise 
and energetic use of all their means resulted in the chief attempt 
to colonize Neys^ England that had yet been made, and the presence 
on Town Hill in Churlestown, July, 1630, of large numbers of the 
colonists associated with them. Many, and perhaps the great 
majority, appear to have been plain, substantial country-people, — 
they, like their leaders, thoroughly devoted to the strong religious 
principles of Puritanism, and endowed with strong and energetic 
English sense. 

Their purposes could not be fully told in England, where and 
when these might be hindered or prevented. They came here to 
settle, plant, and build, to earn an honest living, and make homes 
as good as could be, for they knew the worth of homes. 

But wider and far hiccher thah material things was the great 



30 

purpose of their coming. It was not for M^ealth alone, or power, or 
toleration as we know it. " Their lofty and soul-enthralling aim," 
said Dr. Ellis, ''the condition and reward of all their severe suffer- 
ings and arduous efforts, was the establislnnent and administra- 
tion here of a religious and civil commonwealth . . . founded " on 
<'the Bible, the whole Bible;" or as Governor Winthrop wrote, 
"whereas the way of God hath always been to gather his churches 
out of the world; now the world, or civil state, must be raised out 
of the churches." 

Without delay the colonists began, with sturdy English pluck 
and sense, the ordering of things material by which they were to 
live, of needed civil institutions, and above all of their churches 
that were as the soul to the material body. 

July 8, 1630, they ke])t a ])ublic day of thanksgiving for their 
arrival, a day observed through all the plantations ; one that might 
be called the first great New England Thanksgiving, and observed 
upon Town Hill by probably the largest number of English that 
had yet been gathered on New England ground. 

Friday, July 30, the covenant of a church was signed, upon or 
or near this hill. On August 27 John Wilson was appointed 
teacher. Increase Nowell ruling elder. The number of members 
was about one hundred. The first place of meeting is said to have 
been under the Charlestown Oak ; afterwards the services were in 
the Great House, so called, built for the governor, and standing 
near the sovtthwest corner of the present City Square. 

The settlers failed to find good water that existed, and disease 
prevailed. A movement was begun across the river to a neighbor- 
ing peninsula. By autumn a large number were established there ; 
and on September 7, old style, the town that they began was 
known as Boston. In November the governor, the minister, and 
other chief men moved there. Church service, it is said, was held 
alternately in the two places. It was two years later when the 
first meeting-house in Boston was erected. As Hubbard said, " they 
made but one congregation for the present." As Governor Hutch- 
inson wrote, "they considered themselves, . . at first, as but one 
settlement and one church, with Mr. Wilson for their minister." 
At length a large part of the people were in Boston, services were * 
chiefly held there, storms and ice in winter made the passage of 
the river difficult, and when the fall of 1G32 was closing, it was 
thought best that a separate church should be established here. 
Governor Winthrop states that "those of Charlestown who had 



31 

formerly been joined to Boston congregation were dismissed" from 
it. They numbered nearly one fourth of it. The Records of the 
Fii'st Church, Charlestown, state that the first (35) signers of its 
covenant "were dismissed from Boston Church," — one that from the 
beginning has been very prominent and influential, known as the 
First Church, Boston, of which Hubbard wrote two hundred years 
ago, " some have been heard to say, they believed [it] to be the 
most glorious church in the world." 

Friday, November 2, 1632, — November 12, new style, — was 
made a day of fisting and of prayer in Charlestown. Sixteen men, 
all with their wives, and three men singly, signed a church covenant, 
and formed the organization to-day existing here. The Rev. 
Thomas James, a graduate of Emanuel College, Cambridge, was 
elected and ordained the pastor. Ralph Mousall and Thomas Hale 
became the first two deacons. With serious contemplation of their 
place and mission, this small band of thirty-five began their work. 
The territoi-y of the town at first was large and long, extending 
eight miles up into the country, but soon became diminished by 
formation of new towns. In ten years Woburn was incorporated ; 
seven years later, Maiden. 

A great part of the population for a long time occupied a village 
near the present Square and Boston ferry, or along " the Country 
Road," now called Main Street. Moving out of Charlestown, that 
began so early and extensively, has always since continued ; yet the 
town has constantly increased in population. Of the nineteen 
families that had been represented on the covenant of 1632, eight 
were gone within a dozen years, two more in fifty, six more in 
about a century. The settlement of the first minister lasted less 
than three years and a half, but after his time settlements were 
long ; nine made before the Revolution averaged more than 
twenty-five years each, including two that prematurely closed by 
early deaths. 

The first name on the covenant signed here, November, 1632, was 
Increase Nowell, who. Dr. Budington wrote, " may be considered 
the father of the church and the town. He was a zealous Puritan 
and active and devout Christian, and deserves to be held in grate- 
ful esteem by the citizens of this Commonwealth, and especially by 
the inhabitants of this town." He left abundance in Old England 
for privations here. His immediate family, before and after him, 
was honorable. His sons, Alexander and Samuel, were graduates 
of Harvard. The former wrote an almanac for 1665, printed by 



32 

Samuel Green at Cambridge in tliat year. The latter was styled 
the " excellent " and " never to be forgotten," the " Fighting Chap- 
lain in Philip's War." Both were among the very earliest wi-iters 
in this town whose Avork was printed in America. Another name 
is Ralph Mousall, one of the first two deacons. He was a select- 
man for nearly twenty-five years, and from 1686 to 1638 a repre- 
sentative to the General Court, that expelled him, after questioning 
him about what he had said in fiivor of Mr. Wheelright, who had 
delivered an obnoxious Fast Sermon. Historians tell us now that 
the Court was wrong and the Deacon was right. John Hale, the 
other deacon, was a selectman for eleven years. His son John, 
baptized here, 4th month, 5th day, 1636, became the first minister 
at Beverly, and author of "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of 
Witchcraft," printed in 1702, — perhaps the rarest book on witch- 
craft in New England, and worth more now, for its size at least, 
than perhaps any other New England book of the 18th century. 

Tw"o other signers w^ere William and Ann Frothingham, the only 
signers whose name and lineage now remain, or for many years 
have remained, in this town. Their descendants have been numer- 
ous ; constantly some of them have been in ])ositions of trust. 
Three of them successively were deacons of this church, their 
terms of oflice reaching ninety-seven years. And, at a time like 
this, how we lament the absence here of one in whose too early 
death so many of us lost a friend, and Charlestown one of its 
most cherished citizens and its historian, — Richard Frothingham. 

December 22, 1634, the Rev. Zechariah Symmes w^as here 
installed. Born in Canterbury, that delightful ancient city closely 
associated with the planting of the Christian faith in England, — 
another graduate of Emanuel, — he labored here for thirty-seven 
years. Meanwhile, the common school was here established, — 
eleven years before the law of Massachusetts ordered that a town 
must have one. 

On the 6th of November, 1637, the Rev. John Harvard, still 
another from Emanuel, became a member of this church. He, for 
some portion of his brief time here, supplied the pulpit, and died 
on September 14, 1638. We all know how and where his name 
has been enshrined, and how in those days of small things, great 
things arose, and Puritans here in the Bay of Massachusetts testi- 
fied to their belief in true, sound learning. John Harvard of 
Charlestowni gave about twice as much as the whole colony had 
dared to i)romise for the college that was begun at Cambridge. 



33 

In 1G39 tlio Rev. Thomas Allen was installed, or was ordained, 
as teacher and assistant. He, like many of his people, was an 
Eastern County man. He remained here for twelve years. 

Meanwhile the j^m'poses of tliose who founded Massachusetts 
were developed, and affairs with which they or their children liad 
to deal. The Synod of 1687 was assembled to consider doctrines 
held by Mrs. Anne Hutchinson ; a second in 1648 to form an eccle- 
siastical constitution; and another in 1662, of great importance, 
respecting bajDtism and a consociation of churches. In 1648 ap- 
peared a case of witchcraft, said to be the first in Massachusetts, 
and originated in this town. A few years later occurred the deal- 
ings with the Quakers, so often mentioned. The leading member 
of this sect in Charlestown was severely fined. 

Grave charges of intolerance, of persecution, and of superstition 
have been made against the Puritans in Massachusetts. The plain 
statement of their rights, of their i)osition, and their purpose here, 
is quite sufficient answer to niuch said against them. They^vere 
here at first as members of a private corporation, through Avhich 
they had honestly obtained their lands for homes where they pro- 
posed to carry out their plan of a religious state, as they could not 
in Enghind. They had invested, labored, suffered for their purpose. 
Through all their earlier period of weakness they must do no less 
than keep out those who woi^ld impair, imperil, or would ruin their 
great plan. It may be questioned whether any church, society, or 
club, or school, in its own building, now, could safely do much less. 
Whatever may be thought about their plan, it was one well worth 
trying, and Americans owe quite enough to them to be at least 
both just and civil to them. 

All of the Quakers, two centuries ago, were not the counterparts 
of estimable Quakers of late generations and to-day. It is a ques- 
tion whether sundry of their ways would be allowed in public now. 
"The Puritans," Judge Parker wrote, "had no peace, but 'torment 
upon torment' from the Quakers." And, indeed, "so far from the 
Puritans persecuting the Quakers, it was the Quakers who perse- 
cuted the Puritans." 

What is now. called the witchcraft delusion Avas once a belief, — 
one of the few beliefs in wliich, it has been said, the various divisions 
among Christians once remarkably agreed. A person who may 
use names and dates and facts found in New England in the 
last half of the seventeenth century, and counts no others, may 
make it seem that our forefathers were a superstitious and blood- 

5 



34 

thirsty race. They did act harshly in some cases; we wish now 
we could say in none. But things in this Avorld are comparative as 
well as positive. Men should be judged by their own age, and 
not by our age. When the wide, long, prevalence of a belief in 
witchcraft and its punisliment are thought of, we realize that a 
curious cliaractcristic that marked their times, to but a moderate 
extent marked tliem. 

It is sad that even one trial of a man by torture ever has oc- 
curred in Massachusetts ; but when we examine what the seven- 
teenth century was through Christendom, — the appalling use of 
torture in ecclesiastical and civil cases, the abominable dungeons, — 
we can feel deep thankfulness that our forefathers were so much 
less cruel than their age. And furthermore, there seems to be 
good reason for believing that instead of being chief among the 
sinners, they were first among those who reformed, and who re- 
nounced what we now hold to be an error. Tliey had their faults, 
of course, and we may now be even glad that we did not live with 
them ; but when Americans must make apologies because they 
hurt the feelings of George III., it may be time to make apologies 
for our old Puritans, and not until that time. 

Their virtues and heroic faith have been already here to-day 
revealed afresh with eloquence and truth, in a discourse to which 
no other words than those of thanks and appreciation can be 
added. 

In 1658 died good John Green, the only ruling elder of the 
church, admitted to it less than five montlis after it Avas organized. 
He kept its early records and those of the town. Ilis admirable 
writing is a model, testifying to his careful thoroughness. 

In 1669 another celebrated Boston church was organized in 
Charlestown, — the Old South. Its first minister, the Rev. Thomas 
Thatcher, was a member of this church. 

Two names distinguished in the ministry appear about this pe- 
riod. Thomas Shepard, ordained in 1659, died 1677, and Avas suc- 
ceeded, after an interval of some uncertainty, by his son Thomas, 
in 1680. The latter died in 1685, aged only twenty-seven. The 
former, in 1672, preached the Election Sermon at Boston, — prob- 
ably the first sermon by a Charlestown minister printed in America. 
An elegy upon his death, composed by Rev. Urian Oakes, was one 
of the earliest poems composed and printed in this country. He is 
said to have been " a very holy man, much distinguished for his 
erudition, his various virtues, and winning manners." He was " a 



35 

watchful guardian of Harvard College." He was a son worthy of 
his honored father, the Rev. Thomas Shepard of Cambridge Church. 
Thomas, the third thus named in this remarkable family, was also 
distinguished for learning and for piety. His salary, it is of inter- 
est to note, was £100 a year. He was the only minister of this 
church who was baptized in it. His labors were unusually suc- 
cessful. His early death was much lamented. His funeral was 
attended by the governor and magistrates, by many of the clergy, 
and the faculty and students of the college. Cotton Mather 
says he was " A So7i that was the Lively Picture of his [father's] 
Virtues," a " Confirmation to that Obseiwation, That as the Snow- 
JBall, the further it rolls, the greater it grows, thus the further that 
the Grace of God is continued, and received, and valued in any 
Family, the Greater EffecU of that Grace will be still appearing." 

For a year and five months the church was then without a pastor. 
Various ministers supplied the pulpit ; among them, Rev. Cotton 
Mather preached to the Artillery Company. In July, 1686, the 
Rev. Charles Morton came from England. His family had been of 
honorable character for full three hundred years. He was a gradu- 
ate of Oxford, and a scholar widely known. " The Worthily 
Famous," wrote John Dunton, with " Sense Enough for a Privy 
Counsellour, and Soul Great Enough for a King;" "a person too 
considerable in his Generation, to want any of our commendation," 
said prominent ministers near here. He was received, with enthu- 
siasm, and in about four months was installed the pastor of this 
church. He died here, after ministering about eleven and a half 
years. 

The disturbances arising from the conduct of Governor Andros, 
and the Revolution of 1688, also made Mr. Morton prominent. 
His sermon. Lecture Day, September 2, 1687, contained expressions 
deemed seditious. He was pi'osecutcd and acquitted. He, by 
some ninety years, was a precursor of the patriots of another "glo- 
rious Revolution." 

To the close of Mr. Morton's pastorate, and nearly also of the 
seventeenth century, the number of admissions to the church Avas 
649, and of baptisms 1675. The earliest baptism of an adult is 
thought to have been in 1673. The only marriages recorded here 
were from 1687 to 1697, by Mr. Morton. 

The history of the church from this time to the end of the Colo- 
nial Period must be briefly sketched. The Rev. Simon Bradstreet 
was ordained in 1698. He was minister for forty-three years 



36 

Rev. Joseph Stevens was ordained in 1713, and died aged thirty- 
nine, wlien he liad been here hut eight years. Rev. Hull Abbot 
was ordained in 1724, and was a pastor fifty years. Associated 
with him nearly thirty-five years was the Rev. Thomas Prentice, 
installed in 1739. He died aged eighty, in 1782, after a pastorate 
of forty-three years. All these four were natives of New England, 
and were graduates of Harvai-d College, — good and true men, 
faithful and successful in their work. 

The number of admissions from 1698 to 1775 was about 954 ; of 
baptisms, 4,381. The Record from 1632 gives over 7,600 names, 
that must belong to nearly 7,000 persons. Among the many mem- 
bers of the church esteemed here, and too many to be mentioned 
now, we should, at least, recall some names. General Robert Sedg- 
wick, admitted at the end of 1636, was, in 1652, made the highest 
military officer in the colony. In the last two years of his life he 
served Oliver Cromwell. Thomas Graves, from the same ruler, 
received the title of Admiral.^ Francis Willoughby, an enterprising 
citizen, was " almost coiistantly " in public office. All these three 
were merchants. Five generations of the Russell family in turn 
supplied the church and town with men who were among the most 
distinguished in them both. In 1640 Richard came from Hereford. 
James, his oldest son, was born liere in that year. His son Daniel 
lived till 1763. The fourth was James, the son of Daniel, born 
here 1715. The last was Thomas, second son of James, born 1740. 
All bore well the title Honorable ; all were business men or 
merchants ; all were benefactors of this church. The clock uj^on 
the gallery bears the name of Thomas Russell, who gave it. 
One sacramental tankard bears initials, probably of Richard, who 
died 1676. 

In 1686 Judge Samuel Penhallow, the author of the " History of 
the Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians," joined the 
church, and was a member nearly thirty years. In 1703 died Cap- 
tain Richard Sprague, descended from the early settlers of that 
name. He gave money for the ministers, the school, the pooi", and 
for sacramental plate (two tankards of which now remain), and, 
chiefly, the old parsonage, with house and land. In 1705 Rev. 

1 Tliis cliurch and society were not only represented in the great Civil War or 
the public service in England over two centuries ago, but also in the great Civil 
War in the United States. Among those who have been members of this church 
or congregation were four officers who then attained the rank of Admiral. Com- 
modore John B. Montgomery, also, was many years a member of this church. 



37 

Timothy Cutler, afterwards president of Yale and more than forty 
years the rector of Christ Church in Boston, became a member. 
Rev. Joseph Lord was brought up here. He, February '2, 1696, is 
said to have officiated at the first communion in Carolina, near 
Charleston. Rev. Stephen Badger, missionary to the Natick Indi- 
ans, also was a member. 

The great subjects of the times appear to have been treated in 
this pulpit, as at earlier dates. Thomas Prentice preached on the 
Reduction of Cape Breton, and Hull Abbot on the Scotch Rebel- 
lion, both in 1745. Here Rev. George Whitefield preached to 
crowded congregations, and the great revival of 1741 ensued. In 
that year there were sixty-six admissions to the church — the 
largest number in any year. The chair and Bible that he used 
are still preserved. 

The place of worsMi) of the church, although close to this spot 
from the beginning, was not permanent till 1639. Then a meeting- 
house was built upon the hill-slope toward the Square. With vari- 
ous changes it existed seventy-seven years, and was then replaced 
by a framed building with a steeple, that was burned upon the 17th 
of June, in 1775. So fir as now appears, it was a wooden structure, 
in the general style of the old meeting-houses in this region. In 
the claims for losses it was valued at £3,000. 

The material things remaining from the times before the Revo- 
lution, and associated with this church, are small and few, but their 
value is thus made the greater. 

The original Church Record from 1682, kept by Elder Green, 
and after him by the successive ministers to 1768, is carefully pre- 
served. Its contents have been printed, three quarters in the His- 
toric-Genealogical Register, and all in a large quarto volume, copies 
of which have been placed in various libraries. Every name and 
statement in the Records will be found there. Several pieces of 
communion-service also still remain. The tomb in which the min- 
isters were buried stands in the old graveyard of the town, and has 
been marked anew. Some of their discourses have been printed, 
but copies have been seldom seen here in this century. Some man- 
uscripts of sermons are preserved. Nineteen, preached by the Rev. 
Thomas Shepard (2d), in 1668 and 1669, are owned by the Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Society. 

The spring of 1775 brought its peciiliar trials to the town and 
church. A great alarm was caused in April, when the royal troops 
returned from Lexington, and many of the people left their homes. 



38 

The fnthei- of good Deacon Miller was then killofl. Removals, both 
of families and property, continued, so that by the middle of the 
month of June about two hundred persons only were left in the 
town east of the neck. Upon the 17th of June a large part of 
the members of the church and congregation lost their houses and 
much other property in the great conflagration. The patriotic 
Deacon Miller, with his gun, went up to Bunker Ilill and did good 
service. The Records of the church state that more than three 
hundred and eighty buildings were destroyed, and that two thou- 
sand persons were " reduced from affluence and mediocrity to the 
most aggrivated exile." The endurance of the people was severely 
tried, but, in the words of a rare poem of the time, — 

" Not Charlestoivn'ii flame that spiring high arose; 
Nor all the smoke that aided to oppose; 
Could shake the firmness of Columbia's Band, 
To yield submissive the adjacent land." ^ 

After the town was burned, and after hostile troops had left it, 
some of those who had been living here returned. The place was 
dreary. Grass, indeed, was growing green on Bunker's and Breed's 
Hills ; but all around the Town Hill and the Square, and streets near 
by, were ruins of their homes. The dwellings of the dead upon 
the Burial Hill alone seemed to be spared. 

When first the town was built, the forests grew around in wild- 
ness, yet in peace and beauty ; but when the rebuilding was begun, 
the recent havoc of a cruel war, and dismal evidence of trying loss, 
confronted everywhere the builders. A memorial informs us that 
in 1777 " the returning inhabitants in their distressed situations " 
at once provided a place of worship. They " found no other or 
better than an old block-house left by the British troops upon 
Town Hill." This building was used for the town and school 
house, and the meeting-house, for half a dozen years. The Record 
states that "the first administi-ation of the Lord's Supper in Charles- 
town, since the destruction by the crudest British Enemy, was 
Nov. 8, 1778, with great solemnity, and fulness of members be- 
yond expectation." The venerable Thomas Prentice conducted the 
services. The scene was one, indeed, of the most solemn and most 
touching ever witnessed in this old historic town. 

In this block-house, Sept. 4, 1780, the townspeople first voted 
for magistrates under the new State Constitution. There were 

1 America Invincible, 1779. 



39 

forty-eight votes. On Oct. 27, 1782, the town voted to convey to 
the First Parish in it the Town-House Hill, for the purpose of 
erecting thereon a meeting-house, within five years. 

In the next year, 1783, the meeting-house required was built 
upon the present site. It was 72 feet long and 52 feet wide, a 
wooden structure, with a steeple 162 feet high, designed by Charles 
Bulfinch. The front lot on the Square, the former site, appears to 
have become private property at about this time. The bell was 
presented by Champion, Dickason, and Burgis, merchants of Lon- 
don. It has since been broken and recast, — once by Paul Revere, 
— was claimed by the town for town uses, delivered to it by the 
parish, and finally became private i)roperty by purchase. It now 
hangs in the tower, where the parish has the use of it while the 
parish does not change its past religious faith. 

No minister was settled here until the 10th of January, 1787. 
Rev. Joshua Paine, Jr., who had been unanimously called, was min- 
ister about a year, when he died at the age of twenty-five. His 
piety and social virtues were esteemed. " His remains," a record 
states, " were decently and respectfully entombed at the expense of 
the parish, March 1st, 1788." He was the last minister w^ho died 
in oflice in this church, and was buried by it. 

In November, 1788, Rev. Jedidiah Morse was unanimously called 
to the pastorate, and on April 30, 1789, he was installed. His min- 
istry of thirty years extended through a period marked by the 
change of thought and modes, both in religious and political afiliirs, 
that took place under our new institutions. He not only was the 
pastor of this church, but was also prominent in various public mat- 
ters, and in the early literature of the nation. Five years before 
he came he published at New Haven his " Geography made Easy," 
said to be the first geography published in this country. In 1789 
his larger work, " The American Geography," appeared at Eliza- 
bethtown. Each of these works passed several editions, and began 
a series of like publications, that his sons continued. Altogether 
several hundred thousand copies were issued by this fiinily in sixty 
years. The various other works by Dr. Morse were numerous. His 
Gazeteer is an important, and perhaps unrivalled, " picture of what 
this country was " immediately after the Revolution. The maps 
and the Reports on Indians that he published, cannot be dispensed 
with in the illustrations of the early national history and art. Some 
of his works received the honor of reprint in Bi'itish cities, some of 
translation, and some were thought worth stealing. 



40 

In 1802 Dr. Morse, assisted by members of this parish, issued 
nineteen religious tracts, " of which 32,600 copies Avere circulated." 
His son states that "there can be little doubt that, in 1802, the 
pastor and people of the First Parish in Charlestown had done 
more in circulating religious tracts among the poor and destitute 
in the United States than any other people in New England." 

To one man alone belongs an even greater honor. He was, in 
his time, a chief supporter ot this church, and of him it is stated : 
" Richard Devens, Esq., of Charlestown, had no equal in America 
in this benevolence. For him [were] printed more than 100,000 
tracts for gratuitous distribution." He died in 1807, aged eighty- 
six, full both of years and honors. 

On the day Dr. Morse was installed there were 135 church-mem- 
bers, — 43 men and 92 women, — of whom 40 were widows. On 
June 1, 1800, the total number was 143. Until this year the 
First Church had been substantially the one church of the town. 
In 1800 the First Baptist Church was organized, and May 12, 1801, 
its meeting-house was opened. Dr. Morse made an address, and 
Oliver Holden wrote the music for an anthem. In 1800 the town 
had 2,751 inhabitants and 349 houses. Both of these numbers 
gradually grew. 

In 1803 the increase of the population of the town made neces- 
sary an enlargement of the meeting-house, and 15 feet were added 
on each side. There were then 162 pews, of which 92 were held 
by the parishioners. In 1806, June 10, the number of church 
members had increased to 235, of whom 171 were women. There 
were 40 widows, as in 1789. Within a few years the navy-yard 
and prison were established, and the general business of the town 
increased. In 1810 the Universalist Society built its meeting- 
house, and gathered there some both of the older and the later 
inhabitants, and some Avho were not jxarishioners or members of 
this church. In 1815, Dr. Morse, with his son Sidney E., and N. 
Willis, established "The Boston Recorder," said to be the first 
religious newspaper ever published in this country. 

The efiects of the last war with England were severe in this vicinity. 
In 1815 the town, that then contained about five thousand peo- 
ple, was recovering from them. There were here a dozen or more 
professional men, seven or eight school-teachers, and an artist, 
James Frothingham. The community was active and intelligent. 
Diffeiing beliefs in politics and in religion had grown with the insti- 
tutions of the young republic, and these last were showing their 



41 

effect upon the various divisions of the people. The benevolent 
operations, and what might be called the Charlestown literature of 
the period, show that good work was done by every class. There 
was strong feeling then on several subjects, that affected even flim- 
ilies, and there was change by death and by removal. Some old 
names came to be borne by but few persons, or to be upon oppos- 
ing sides. A notable division had for years been growing up among 
the Congregationalists in this region, and, 1815-17, it extended to 
this town, and here resulted in the formation of the Second Con- 
gregational Society, that, in 1837, was called the Harvard Church. 
A majority — a very large one in the church — remained in the 
First Chui-ch and Parish. The latter lost a valuable minority. 
Among those who remained members of the First Church at this 
period were Jeremiah Evarts, — one of the most distinguished phi- 
lanthropists at that time in the country, and father of Hon. Wm. M. 
Evarts, — and Samuel Finley Breese Morse, artist and inventor, the 
only native of the town, it is thought, who received national hon- 
ors at his death ; his foreign decorations also were remarkable.^ 

In 1819, Dr. Morse resigned the pastorate,'^ and was succeeded 
by the Rev. Warren Fay, who was installed on February 23, 1820.3 
In that year, the Methodist Religious Society in Charlestown was 
incorporated. 

Another large division of the Congregationalists came in 1832, 
when, December 27, thirty-four •* persons about double the num- 
ber of church-members who originally joined the Second Church — 
were dismissed from the First Church, and formed the Third, or 
Wiuthrop Church. The First Church has supplied members to per- 



1 



It is of interest to note what was felt and was recorded by this steadfast Puri- 
tan cliurch during trying experiences early in this century. No bitterness or 
desire to control the conscience appeared ; sectarian terms were avoided. When 
members desired to join the Second Church, for instance, the connection was dis- 
solved at their request (that is the expression), and the pastor added to the llec 
ord that " the above-named have remained in regular and good standing in this 
church from their first union with it to this time." 

2 There were passages in the life of Dr. Morse, here before 1818, that are pa- 
thetic. An account of them is perhaps unpublished. He had severe trials in 
obtaining means to bring up a family, which has honored more than this town 

alone. 

3 The number of admissions by Dr. Fay (1820-40) was 383 ; by Dr. Morse 
(1789-1820) was 400. There were only five admissions in 1815, but in the three 
years, 1816-18, there were 83. In these three years less than twenty members 
left to join the Second Church. 

* January 7, 1833, one more was added. 

6 



42 

haps every other religious organization in the town, and to several 
churches in other places, but this appears to be the largest body that 
has gone from it to any one of thera. At the end of 1835, how- 
ever, the number of its communicants was 271, of whom 79 were 
admitted by Dr. Morse. 

On April 22, 1840, the Rev. Wm. Ives Budington was ordained 
pastor, eight months after Dr. Fay had left. This year, 1840, was 
the annus mirahilis of the ministry in Charlestown, for then came 
here three ministers, each to be pre-eminent in his denomination, — 
Dr. Ellis, Dr. Chapin, Dr. Budington. Dr. Budington, as he told 
the speaker near the close of his life, came here with all his young 
enthusiasm to devote himself to this old church. Within three 
years he, in nine lectures, told its history, that was printed, and 
that is among the earlier productions in its class. His work bears 
testing, and has literary character that was soon acknowledged. 
A few years later, after he returned from his first tour in Europe, 
he conceived the project of remodelling the meeting-house. 

The wooden edifice of 1788 became decayed, and was replaced by 
a brick building, dedicated 1834, — the one in which we meet. The 
style was then thought classic. The interior was square and j^lain. 
The ceiling, low and nearly flat, av as whitewashed, and the walls were 
yellow. Mr. Alexander R. Esty supplied designs, and the existing 
form and aspect were given to this building. The interior was the 
first in town to show some of the more established lines of Christian 
art, ecclesiastical in character. The plain hall of the meeting-house, 
known for two centuries, became tlie nave known for a thousand 
years. In 1868, Miss Charlotte Harris, then of Boston, gave sixteen 
bells, now in the tower of this meeting-house, and called the Har- 
ris Chime. She wrote : " My ancestors, Harris and Devens, were 
for a great number of years inhabitants of Charlestown, and wor- 
shipped in the church of the First Parish." On this account, as 
also from interest in this society and its pastor. Rev. J. B. Miles, 
she gave the chime, then one of the largest in the country. In 
1870, the present coloring of the interior was applied, with some of 
its significance in early art, and its expression of religious teaching, 
Over all the congregation, in the nave, — the Latin navis, that 
great ship of tlie church in which we all are carried through the 
storms of life to the celestial haven, — was spread deep blue, the 
emblem of the peace of heaven. Upon the wall, before the people, 
is the gray, expressive of humility. And from the language in 
which the apostles wrote are taken letters joined as tliey once were 



43 

upon the tombs of the first martyrs, and here written in bright gold, 
the emblem of celestial glory, to tell the name, above all other 
names, before which every knee shall bow, — the Christos, Alpha 
and Omega of the Church's faith. 

The pastorate of Dr. Budington closed July 24, 1854, and Rev. 
James B. Miles succeeded him on January 2, 1855. In 1856, the 
number of church-members living was 297. The faithful services 
of Mr. Miles were closed September 30, 1871, when he went to a 
Avork, wide as the world, that placed his name in honorable prom- 
inence among those who have labored for the spread of peace and 
of good-will. His sudden death occurred November 18, 1875. Dr. 
Budington died November 29, 1879, at Brooklyn, where he had been 
pastor of the large church on Clinton Avenue for more than twenty 
years. Charitable towards all, learned, eloquent, chivalrous and 
courteous, devoted to the highest requ.irements of his sacred office, 
he lived and died a true Christian gentleman and teacher. 

And thus, within a few years, both these long-endeared and valued 
pastors of this ancient church have, in their turn, been numbered 
with the many faithful and lamented ministers whom they so worth- 
ily succeeded. And at these latest deaths of pastors and of friends 
we look back on the past, and view the present of the four-hilled 
town. For, after we have had this brief review of a long history, 
we who live here now may well think of the deep significance that 
changing times at length have given to the four hills that stand on 
the diminished territory we still call by its old name. 

On this hill many of the Fathers of New England did their por- 
tion of the labor in the founding of our institutions ; on a second 
stands a monument that testifies their strong devotion to sound 
learning ; on a third there is a lofty spire that bears the name of 
that great bishop of Geneva, filmed for "all-embracing charity;" 
upon the fourth is that grand obelisk to tell the meaning of the 
Revolution. 

We are all here to live, — each with individual belief and sense of 
duty, all in peace and quietness. And here we daily see the fiDur 
hills of the town with their impressive lessons, — of the open Bible, 
of sound learning. Christian charity, and civil freedom. May they 
never teach less to the people here, and always may there be around 
them benedictions on the " Church of God in Charlestown." 



44 

ADDRESS BY REV. RUFUS ELLIS, D.D., 

Pastor of the First Church, Boston. 

The anniversaries of the foundation of the First Church in 
Boston and of the First Church in Charlestown might well have 
been observed together. If we go back to the fountain and origin, 
the two churches are really one church. If Winthrop, Dudley, 
Johnson, and Wilson are ours of Boston, they are just as truly yours 
of Charlestown. It was this soil that they hallowed by prayer and 
fasting. Tliis was the centre towards which so many eyes and 
hearts were turned when those leaders and pioneers set forth the 
touchingly simple words of their Christian covenant. The tree 
which sheltered their first worship was rooted in this earth, and 
Ufted its branches to these heavens. It might almost be said to us 
of Boston, "Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee!" and of all 
things it would least become us to boast ourselves against a branch 
which was indeed a companion growth, — another trunk from the 
game root. We crossed the ocean together; we explored the banks 
of the Charles together; we began our New England Congre- 
gational life together ; and to this earliest abiding-i)hice your reli- 
gious ancestors soon returned, to keep their Day of the Lord where 
their homes and their week-day occupations were ; and yet, not par- 
ent and child, but sisters and town-sisters these churches walked 
together for long years, side by side, thinking the same thoughts, 
cherishing the same aspirations, striving together for the faith of the 
Gospel. It was only a brief episode in your church life, those jour- 
neys of yours in the early days, and sometimes in great stress of 
weather, to Boston ; it was very kind of you to stay long enough 
to render substantial help in the building of the little church and the 
parsonage; but I have no doubt you were glad to get back into the 
Great House on this side of the river, and then to build a house of 
worship of your own. 

I have said that we might well have had but one celebration. 
But it is far better to liave two ; for there have been two lives and 
there are two histories, and there are two First Churclies. We, in 
Boston, and you, in Charlestown, have had each our own experiences 
to tell ; and twice Avill not be too often to refresh our minds and 
our hearts by recalling what we have in common, — our rich heri- 
tage in the founders and first days of these First Chuiches. We want 



45 

to behold those grave<ind earnest faces of our fathers, if only that 
through beholding we may in some degree bo changed into the same 
image. Those men came out from our mother-land in what we must 
call her heroic age, — some of them the friends of those who were 
soon to become magnates of the English Commonwealth. They 
were alive with a life which was a life indeed for Church and State ; 
a life which, as it came forth in the new conditions of this new 
world, proved to be even creative. Their light was the light of 
life, — to be seen, not in letters or in art, but in character and con- 
duct ; not the spice, but the salt of the earth was that little com- 
pany. We cannot too often recall them, amidst the increase of our 
modern life, as those who could not live by bread alone. With all 
their English energy and thrift they were idealists ; they walked by 
faith, not by sight, — faith, which in all ages is the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And their idealism was 
all the more precious because, like all true idealism, its foot, like the 
patriarch's ladder, rested upon the earth, whilst the top reached into 
the heavens. Their dreams were religious ; but they were none the 
less persuaded that something would come of them, here on earth 
and amongst men. And a fresh study of their way of life woula 
seem to be especially helpful in these days of high pressure, and 
wear and tear of mental and moral and material substance. In the 
presence of these men we can study to be quiet, to make up our 
minds, to recover oui-selves in the deep things of God and his 
righteousness, and be sure that life is worth living because we are 
alive with some worthy aims and expectations. As we think of our 
fathers in this church, intellect, genius, beauty, are outshone and 
obscured by goodness of heart, purity of life, a high moral purpose, 
and a singular humanity, — and that amidst the manifold problems 
of duty, the complications and temptations of real life. In many 
respects, as history has interpreted the everlasting word of Jesus, 
as in the Divine Providence our heavens and our earth have passed 
away, these First Churches have changed the modes and forms of 
truth, — the one more, perhaps, and the other less; but God forbid 
that in the mind and heart, the innermost of our Christian faith, 
hope, and love, we should ever depart from the way more excellent 
of our religious ancestors, that we should cease to look upon our 
world as they looked upon it, with earnest, serious eyes, piercing 
beneath all that is phenomnal to what is real,— all which is good only 
for the moment, and satisfies only the senses, to that which is divine 
and undying. Without that vision the people perish, no matter 



46 

how magnificent their outward civilization ; and this inmost life cre- 
ates and nourishes all other life. They say — our latest critic says 
— of this people that they make too much haste ; but he who 
l)elieveth will not make haste. The fathers of these churches 
declined the invitation to sit in the Westminster Council ; but the 
result of that council was a catechism, the opening sentences of 
which I trust we shall never depart from. They were these : " What 
is the chief end of man ? The chief end of man is to glorify God 
and enjoy Him forever." Can philosophy give us any better rule 
of life than this? 



ADDRESS BY HON. CHARLES DEVENS. 

The occasion has been one of the greatest interest ; while I have 
listened Avith pleasure and instruction, I could have wished that it 
might have passed without any words from me, — not, certainly, 
that I would fail in anything that could do honor to the founders of 
this church, but that I feel how little I can utter anything worthy 
of the occasion. 

The anniversary of this church is inextricably mingled with that 
of the First Church of Boston. It is not so much an outgrowth, or 
an offshoot, as one of its integral parts ; while "its formal organiza- 
tion dates from 1632, its real organization is that of the church 
formed here in 3 630. The charter of the Massachusetts Company had 
been transformed by a large latitude of construction, and by a yet lar- 
ger latitude had been deemed to authorize the foundation of a colony 
which was to govern itself. A state was to be founded here which 
was to rest upon the rock of the church. While the immigrants were 
houseless, scattered around this hill, seeking to satisfy the most sim- 
ple and necessary wants, yet spiritual needs must be satisfied first. 
We stand upon the hill upon which they stood, — almost, it may be 
iipon the very spot. It was here, too, that the Court of Assistants 
first met, and the 2:)olitical life of the colony commenced almost 
contemporaneously with that of the church. Clearly, to use the 
words of Dr. Johnson, "ours is not the frigid philosophy which 
Avould conduct us indifferent and ixnmoved over any ground which 
has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue ; " and the place 
where we stand may well inspire us with elevated thought and 
solemn reflection as we contemplate these men and their work, 



47 

aided as we have been by tlie noble commemorative discourse of 
the afternoon, and the interesting historical paper of the evening. 

It has been the pleasure, sometimes, of historians to attribute fab- 
ulous qualities to the early chiefs and founders of the nations whose 
annals they celebrate. The Greeks and Romans claimed theirs to 
be among the gods of classic mythology. The King Arthurs and 
King Alfreds of Britain's centuries of romance may be invested with 
such qualities, or seen through such colors, as romance or poetry 
may select. But we know the founders of New England as they 
were. They live for us in their works, in the legislation of their 
colony, in the chronicles of their churches, so faithfully recalling 
their doubts and their trials. We knoAV them in the intercourse of 
daily life, — in their struggles with want, with the savages who 
encompassed them, and their for severer struggles to reach that 
exalted faith and experience more valuable than any earthly bless- 
ings. We know them in their most intimate correspondence with 
friends, revealing the deepest and tenderest secrets of their hearts. 
Everywhere they are the same in this, that they have no fears of 
any earthly power, — no repinings, however hard misfortune may be 
upon them, so long as they feel they are doing the work of the 
Lord. For them, earthly honors were nothing, their religious and 
spiritual freedom everything ; and yet, with this, they knew that 
their civil freedom was united. As we behold them, — grave it 
may be that they were in asj^ect, for the responsibility they have 
assumed is solemn and it is due to no earthly dower, — stern it may 
be that they were in feature, for an indomnitable will can alone sus- 
tain them, — plain, it may be even to rudeness, they may be in 
dress, for the work they are to do in the world is not for those who 
wear soft raiment or who dwell in kings' houses ; yet could we see 
them as they once stood here, we should know how high resolve, 
earnest purpose, devoted faith, had impressed itself upon and dig- 
nified their rugged features. 

But although the means of knowing them well are revealed to 
us in so many ways, it is not easy to judge them fairly. It is because 
we cannot separate ourselves from that which surrounds us so as to 
look out upon life as they looked upon it. They have a right to be 
judged from their own standpoint, and from the temper, spirit, and 
thought of the age which was about them. They were men in lofty 
conception far above the age in which they lived ; yet the age in 
which they lived constituted an environment out of which no man 
ever entirely burst. 



48 

" The Puritans," says Mr. Macaulay, " were perhaps the most re- 
markable body of men the world has ever known." There has been 
far too great a disposition to describe them by their deficiencies and 
limitations, rather than by their great and positive merits. It is said 
that they sternly repressed here every form of religious worship ex- 
cept their own. Yet it is to be remembered that they lived in an age 
when no such thing as toleration was known. Persecution was the 
rule and not the exception. They deemed also — and perhaps 
riglitly deemed — that in no other way could they ])reserve and sus- 
tain the faith which was the anchor of their hope, than by confining 
their colony to those of their own church, or those affiliated to it. 
This was the extent of their claim. For the enjoyment of that 
which was dear to them they left the homes of their fathers, had 
braved the stormy sea, had contended with the stern soil and inhos- 
pitable climate, and all the terrors of a savage wilderness. They 
had invited no one to share their dangers; they desired no one 
whose presence might imperil the existence of their faith. It was 
the peculiarity of their situation here, rather than any erroneous 
general view of the rights of all men to civil and religious liberty, 
that caused them to wish that all who came should be of their own 
faith. The emigration to New England Avas largely developed by 
the struggle which had already commenced between King Charles 
and his Parliament. However that might end, one place these men 
were determined should exist where they could worship God in 
their own way. For this they must hold their power untrammelled 
by those who cherished other modes of belief. That emigration 
went on, as it is usually estimated, until something over twenty 
thousand had arrived here from England, It ceased then, for 
Charles and his Parliament were at last in open war, and the place 
of all who thought as they did was in England. Many men who 
had come to Massachusetts returned to join in the struggle there. 
They went to stand in the ranks of Skipiion and Ireton ; or to ride, 
it may be, by the side of Oliver himself, as with his Ironsides, he beat 
down and trampled under foot Prince Rupert and his cavaliers ; or, 
it may be, — like the noblest of their number, Hugh Peter and Sir 
Harry Yaue, — to seal their devotion to their faith upon the block. 
When power came — as it did come — into the hands of the English 
Pui-itans, the religious belief of others was respected. Mr. Hume, 
the bitterest of tlieir critics, says of them : " Of all Christian sects, 
this was the first which, during its prosperity as well as its adversity, 
always adoi)ted the princi])le of toleration." Of course Mr. Hume 



49 

is careful to add one of his usual sneers, by remarking that it is 
extraordinary that what is so just should have proceeded, not from 
reasoning, but from extravagance and fanaticism. 

The connection Avliich our fathers of KioO made between the 
government of the Clmrch and that of the State — or more prop- 
erly tlie Colony — was soon dissolved. Wiiile the law that each 
freeman must be a church-member appears to have continued until 
the colonial passed into the provincial government, yet it was lat- 
terly neglected and disregarded. The things which were Ccesar's 
went to Csesar. 

But although all this was just and necessary, — and although the 
Massachusetts which they knew as but a feeble colony, fringing 
with its scattered hamlets the stormy sea, and that which we know 
is a wealthy and powerful State, an integral portion of a vast 
nation whose gateways are upon the Atlantic and Pacific seas, — let 
the example of our Puritan founders remain with us always. The 
noble lives they led in want and privation and danger do not pass 
away utterly. We will strive at least that the lessons they taught 
of self-devotion, the sacrifices they made for liberty, the high ideals 
they held up of virtue and courage, the lofty standard they main- 
tained of religion and piety, shall not be altogether forgotten. No 
men have ever impressed themselves more upon a nation than have 
the Puritan founders of New England. The principles dear to 
them, and to which they devoted their lives, are in the vanguard of 
every struggle for justice or liberty. 

I cannot conclude without one earnest wish for the prosperity of 
this ancient church. Apart from its great historic associations, it 
is dear to me by tender memory of many who were its honored and 
respected members, with whom I am connected by blood and fiim- 
ily ties, two of whom are commemorated on the walls around us. 
For two hundred and fifty years its voice has been heard, instructing 
and inspiring thousands of grateful and responsive hearts. So may 
it be for centuries to come ! Still may its voice go forth summoning 
■men to higher and nobler lives, in solemn remembrance of him to 
whom they are accountable, rebuking — if rebuke be needed — 
tenderly and charitably, yet encouraging and consoling always. 
Although forms of worship may change, although the solemn swell 
of the organ or the pealing of the chimes above our heads might 
have seemed to those who founded this church inconsistent with the 
severe simplicity dear to them, yet these are but accessories only. 
We will not doubt that in the brighter light in which they stand, 

7 



50 

and with tlie larger vision with which now they see, they will ac- 
knowledge their communion with it so long as, in the language of 
the covenant made here, — often quoted to-day, and yet not too 
often, — it shall teach men to walk in all their ways according to 
the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to the holy 
ordinances of our Saviour, and "in mutual love and respect, each to 
the other, so near as God shall give us grace." 



ADDRESS BY REV. HENRY M. DEXTER, D. D. 

The interesting and instructive paper read by the learned and 
widely known liistorian of Congregationalism should also be 
read to other audiences. It could be adequately described only 
by a full presentation of all of the details that it contained. An 
imagined call was made upon one of the fathers of New Eng- 
land, who, in a conversation with him, gave an account of the 
colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts as they were when 
this chuicli was formally organized. The weakness and the 
isolation of the settlements, from which so much has grown, was 
shown; and hearers could realize the difficulties that beset tlie 
colonists, and the enduring faith and courage with which they 
surmounted them. The astonishing contrasts between the lie- 
ginning and the end of the two centuries and a half just passed 
were vividly illustrated. 



• REV. AMASA S. FREEMAN, D.D., 

Began his address with these words : — 

I am announced as a descendant of a former pastor of this 
church, the Rev. Thomas Prentice, my mother's grandfather, and, 
consequently, my great-grandfather. I am proud of the relation- 
ship, if it is somewhat remote ; and I esteem it a great privilege 
to take some part in the services of an occasion as rare as it is inter- 
esting. It is true my venerable ancestor is not here in person, 
although his features are so Avell preserved in this portrait that it 
almost seems as if he might speak to us. 



51 

I have been so fumiliav for years past witli his pleasant face, that 
I find it difficult to separate in my thoughts the painting from the 
living,. breathing form. 

Dr. Freeman then gave an account of the travels and expe- 
riences of tlie portrait of Rev. Mr. Prentice, owned by liim and 
shown upon the front of the gallery. He stated that in 1847 
he spent a Sabbath with Rev. Dr. Budington, and then preaclied 
" to two aged persons whom [his] great-grandfather Prentice 
had baptized eighty years before." Of the latter days of his 
ancestor, Dr. Freeman said : — 

And so he labored on, ministering after the Revolution to his 
scattered flock, until, in his age, on the last Sabbath of his public 
ministry, with failing memory but with loving heart, lie is said to 
have repeated the same sermon in the afternoon which he had 
preached in the morning. 

And then he fell asleep and was gathered to his fathers on the 
17th of June, 1782, at the age of eighty. As two of our Presidents 
died on the anniversary of our National Independence, so it is a 
touching coincidence that this aged pastor closed his labors and his 
life on the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and of the burn- 
ing of the church in which he had loved to preach. 

Dr. Freeman closed his address with these eloquent words : — 

May I be permitted to add one or two thoughts suggested by 
these services. 

First, — What a blessing is a pious ancestry. It is true that piety 
is not hereditary, but, thank God, His covenant mercies and faithful- 
ness are. " Although my house be not so with God, yet He hath 
made Avith me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and 
sure; for this is all my salvation and all my desire." What are 
wealth, or pedigree, or station, or earthly fame compared with this, 
— a godly parentage ? 

With Cowper, may we not say : — 

" My boast is not that I deduce my birth 
From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth ; 
But higher far my proud pretensions rise — 
The son of parents passed into the skies'"? 

Again, — the occasion we observe forcibly suggests God's care of 
His church. Buildings may decay, — the material structure fall in 



52 

ruins, nnd be rej^laced by otliers. Pastors die. Voices we have 
loved to hear are silent in the grave. Yea, whole congregations 
pass away, but Christ lives King in Zion, and His church lives. In 
the ])lace of the fathers shall be the childi-en. 

Ani\ ^finally, — the <bity of children to commemorate and transmit 
the virtues of their j/ious fathers. 

In the words already sung to-day: — 

"Let (;liil(]ren hear the niitjhfy deeds, 
Which God performed of ohl ; 
Which in our younger years we saw, 
And wliicii our fatiiers told. 

Our lips sliall tell them to our sons. 

And they again to theirs ; 
That generations yet unborn 

May teach them to their heirs. 

Thus shall they learn, in God alone 

Their hope securely stands ; 
That they may ne'er forget His works, 

But practise his commands." 

Dust is on the lips of the long and honored line of pastors of this 
venerable church. 

But though dead they speak. They live in history ; they live in 
the influence they excited, in the characters they moulded, and in 
the children of those to whom they ministered, and whom they re- 
ceived to tlie fellowship of this church of Christ. 

And how can we best honor their memory? By Avalking in their 
steps ; by following them so far as they followed Christ ; by sacredly 
maintaining the doctrines and ordinances of God's house as they 
observed them; and by transmitting these blessings of the gospel as 
a precious legacy to those who come after us. 

Thus shall the seed they sowed reproduce itself in successive years, 
until, in the great harvest, they that sowed and they that reap 
rejoice together. 

May God bless this church of our fathers, and may these recur- 
ring anniversaries be observed by those who come after us, until 
the angel sttmding upon the sea and upon the earth shall lilt his 
hand and swear that time shall be no lonoer. 



53 



ADDRESS BY REV. A. S. TWOMBLY. 

The Wintlirop Church, which I represent on tliis memorable 
occasion, is the offspring, the daughter, of this ancient and venerable 
First Parish Church. Ancient and venerable! yet, by the perpetual 
miracle which keeps the Church of Christ ever fresh and young in 
its living membership, the mother seems no older to-night than the 
daughter. As a daughter, however, the Winthrop Church owes a 
filial duty to the parent church, and gladly ofters congratulations 
and a hearty Godspeed. 

After a reference to Rev. Thomas Prentice, Mr. Twombly 
said : — 

We are another household now, it is true, — we have an edifice of 
our own, — but never shall we be forgetful of the old home. As child- 
ren and grandchildren gather in the homestead at a golden-wedding, 
we are here to-day to share, by right of birth, the honors and mem- 
ories of the festival. Although having a special history of only fifty 
years, which we shall commemorate next January, we claim now 
our lot in the inheritance of our noble ancestry. The names of the 
founders, which to-night are set anew in tablets of remembrance, 
are our pride also. Our hands would help twine the garlands about 
their graves. Those that followed them are also our hereditary 
possession. The Rev. John Harvard, " Charlestown's just glory 
and New England's pride," belongs to us as well as to you ; and all 
the long array of eminent divines, wiio in the earlier days served 
you in the Christian ministry, served us also, — for are we not the 
children of their doctrines and their prayers? Have we not main- 
tained, as a precious legacy, the truth which they taught ? And 
have we not stood out, as this First Parish has always done, for the 
dignity of worship, and an educated ministry, in the good old way? 
With the clergy, also, who have occupied this pulpit since our sep- 
aration, we have always sustained the old family relationslii}). 

Not to speak now of living men, we remember that the eloquent 
Dr. Budington assisted at the laying of the corner-stone of our 
present church edifice, and that he wrote the memoirs of one of our 
pastors. Rev. John Humphrey, of whom he said: "His society glad- 
dened the days of ray early ministry, and the hope of meeting him 
again brightens my anticipation of heaven." Truly, this was Chris- 



54 

tian fellowship, making the two now sainted colleagues like pastors 
over the same fold. We also remember, with a warm pulsation of 
the heart, the debt we would never cancel to Mr. Miles, who, when 
our church had no pastor for a season, made our flock so much his 
care, that the distin(;tion between the two parishes was wellnigh 
lost. I can also give thanks myself for the privilege of imitating 
these excellent examples, inasmuch as it has often fallen to my lot, 
having been an old Sabbath-school scholar of this church, and now 
the nearest minister of the denomination, to serve this parish ofii- 
cially, even as I do to-day, and to minister to it in time of bereave- 
ment, when it has had no pastor ot its own. 

Give then to us to-day, ftithers and brethren of this revered church, 
give to us — who left the ancestral home, when the Lord showed us 
new fields for tillage — leave to share your joy in the past, although 
we have relinquished the old possessions and the ancient name to 
you ! Nay moi'e ! Since we come Avith a name upon us, the name 
of Winthrop, the patronymic of the whole family of which you are 
a part, join with us in perpetuating the memory and the piety of 
our common ancestor. 

After ail eloquent tribute to Governor Winthrop and the 
founders of the old church, Mr. Twombly closed his address 
with these words : — 

And now we pray that it may always be said of you and of us, — 
as Mr. Mather told his countrymen at home, concerning the har- 
mony of the colonial churches, — that the only strife between us is 
for the " magnifying of the grace of God." And may we ever labor 
side by side, — as Mr. Wilson declared of the churches of his day, — 
in earnest effort " to advance that grace in both." 

Let us " consider and remember alwa^'s," in the Avords of the ven- 
erable Zechariah Symmes, tlie second pastor of this church, " that 
the books that shall be opened at the last day will contain geneal- 
ogies in them, and that then shall be brought forth a register of the 
genealogies of New England's sons and daughters." And let us 
see to it that the precious legacy to which we have succeeded may 
ever be a sacred trust, in the name of Him " whose mercy is from 
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and his right- 
eousness to children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to 
those that remember his commandments to do them." 



55 



Sunday, November 12, 1882. 

The sky was clouded, but the temporatuie was mild. At the 
Meeting-house the Harris Chime gave appropriate music fore- 
noon, afternoon, and evening. The interior of the building was 
appropriately decorated. The pillai-s beside the pulpit, and the arch 
above it, boi-e long festoons and pendants of green leaves, along 
which were hung wreaths of flowers. Below the centre of the arch 
was a star formed of red and white flowers. Baskets of flowers 
were placed on or beside the pulpit, and on the wall before the con- 
gregation were the dates 1632 — 1882, in white flowers on a ground 
of green. On the front of the side galleries were six portraits : 
Rev. Thomas Prentice, by Badger, Boston, 1755 ; Rev. J. Morse, 
D.D.; Deacon Tliomas Miller,* — more than forty years in oftice, 
who died in 1832, aged eighty-five, who saved the communion-plate 
in June, 1775, and was an ensign in the battle; Richard Devens, by 
H. Sargent, 1798, — who was born in Charlestown, and who died 
there September 20, 1807, aged eighty-six; Rev, Dr. W. I. Buding- 
ton ;* and Rev. J. B. Miles.* ^ 

In the forenoon, the Sixty-sixth Anniversary of the Sunday- 
school was commemorated. Mr. H. Brower, Jr., read the Annual 
Report, and there were addresses by Mr. T. S. Wentworth, the 
present superintendent, and by S. B. Pratt, B. F. Perkins, George 
H. Rugg, Deacon James Rea, and Deacon A. S. Morss, former 
superintendents. Major W. 11. Hodgkins, formerly a member, 
and Rev. A. S. Freeman, D.D., also spoke. Their interesting 
historical or biographical statements would well fill a separate 
publication. 

In the afternoon and evening there were very large congre- 
gations, and great interest was shown in the Two Hundred and 
Fiftieth Anniversai'y of the formal organization of the church. 
Invitations had been sent to present clergymen and past mayors of 
Charlestown, eight out of twelve of whom are now living. Rev. 
H. L. Kendall, the last jDastor, was present, but his health did not 
permit him to speak. The afternoon services occupied nearly two 
hours. Rev. A. S. Twombly read portions of the Psalms, and an 
impressive prayer was offered by Rev. George W. Blagden, D.D., 
of the Old South Church, Boston, whose ])resence has been wel- 
comed in this church during many years. Deacon A. S. Morss read 

1 The paintings raarlied witii a * belong to the churcli. 

L.bFC. 



56 

an extract from a letter by the late Rev. Dr. Buflington, expressing 
his interest in the approaching anniversary, and his desire to be 
present. Deacon Morss also read an Ode by Miss Mary Devens 
Balfour, who has composed poems for several prominent services in 
the history of this church. The Ode, already printed, ends with 
the following stanza: — 

" For tliis church of the fathers, we tliank thee, God ! 
And long may its soil by the faitliful be trod, — 

The glory be thine : 
"We pass to the future, — the Cross for our stay. 
Where the sin-sick and sad tlieir burdens may lay, — 

All glory still thine." 

Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D., of the First Church, Cambridge, 
delivered the sermon, and Dr. Blagden pronounced the benediction. 

In the evening, Rev. Dr. Freeman read from the Book of Deu- 
teronomy and oftered prayer. He also gave the benediction. A 
portion of the Forty-Fourth Psalm from the "Bay Psalm Book," — 
printed in the programme, — was sung. After it the addresses were 
made. The services and speaking occupied about two hours and a 
half. Among letters received, one from Rev. Charles Follen Lee 
should be especially mentioned, and also one from Rev. George E. 
Ellis, D.D., wlio had been invited to attend. Dr. Ellis writes : 
" With two of your honored pastors I stood for many years in rela- 
tions of esteem, friendship, and social intimacy. In the long line of 
your pastors, Drs. Budington and Miles faithfully served their offi- 
ces with a professional devotion, with mental jiowers, and with 
examples of Christian piety and virtue, giving them high places of 
love and honor upon your roll." Dr. Ellis, after writing of his 
pleasant intercourse with members of the church and parish, and 
expressing a high encomium on the history by Dr. Budington, closes 
his letter with these words: "Let us hope that the old Congre- 
gational Churches — the glory of our State — may so fitly com- 
memorate their founders, and their early honors and services, as 
to revive their work and blessing for new generations." 



The Meetinff-house, burned in 1775, is shown in two or three 
general and distant views, bitt no near and reliable view is known 
to the writer. A large and excellent view of the meeting-house 
built in 1783 is given in INIr. Frothingham's history of the town; 



57 

and also a wood-cut, quite imperfect in details, of the house built 
in 1834. 

The memorials of Historical Anniversaries in the town have been 
very few, except those relating to the Battle of Bunker Hill. In 
1830 Hon. Edward Everett delivered an address to the Lyceum, 
on the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Arrival of Governor 
Winthroj^. 

The historical works on this church are : 

By Dr. Budington, — 

The History of the First Church, Charlestown, in Nine Lectures, 
with [sixty long] Notes. Portrait (?) of Rev. John Wilson. 8vo., 
pp. 259. Boston, 1845. 

Our Puritan Fathers, our Glory. A Sermon in Commemoration 
of the Two Hundred and Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding 
of the Church : November 14, 1852. 8vo., pp. 32. Charlestown, 
1852. 

By Rev. J. B. Miles, — 

A Discourse, January 2, Reviewing the History of the Church. 
8vo., pp. 20. Boston, 1859. 

Semi-centennial Celebration of the First Sabbath-school Society 
in Massachusetts, and of the First [Church and] Parish : Sunday, 
October 14, 1866, at the First Church. Discourse by Rev. J. B. 
Miles. History, List of Officers, Biographical Accounts, etc. Por- 
trait of Rev. J. Morse, D.D. 12mo., pp. 97 + 9. Boston, 1867. 

Records of the First Church in Charlestown, Mass., 1632-1789. 
Prepared by James F. Hunnewell, and printed under his care. Six 
plates. Royal quarto, pp. (8) + 168 + xii +(2 4- 2) to xxvii. 
Sixty-two copies. Boston, 1880. 

See also : — 

New England Historic Genealogical Register, 1869-79, vols. 
xxiii. to xxxiii. 

Bibliography of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Bunker Hill. 
By James F. Hunnewell. Two plates, one map. 8vo., pp. viii + 100. 
James R. Osgood & Co. Boston, 1880. 

The writer published this work, on his own account, as a contri- 
bution to the commemoration of the two hundred and fiftieth anni- 
versary of the formal settlement of the town. It contains, among 
much other matter, a list (and some notes) of the publications of 

8 



58 

all the ministers of the First Church ; a f ac-simile of the title of Rev. 
T. Allen's " Scripture Chronologic," London, 1659, and of Rev. U. 
Oakes's « Elegie " on Rev. T. Shepard. Cambridge, 1677. About 
one hundred and forty-five titles are given of works by, or relating 
to, the pastors of the church. The Bibliography also contains 
references to a large amount of biographical and obituary matter 
that has been published about members of the church and congre- 
gation. There are about four hundred and fifty articles referred to, 
relating to about two hundred and forty inhabitants of the town. 

3Icmuals of the Church were issued in 1836, 1842, 1856, and 1876. 
There are engraved 2:>orfraits, on stone, of Rev. T. Prentice, Rev. 
J. Morse, and Rev. W. Fay ; and, on steel, of Rev. J. Morse and 
Rev. W. I. Budington. 



TOWN HILL, CHARLESTOWK 

Church history, important as it is, is not all that is associated 
with this hill. The writer gave a brief but comprehensive sketch 
of more than the preceding subject might require, in a long article 
that first appeared in the New England Historic-Genealogical Reg- 
ister (vol. sxiv., July, 1870), a part of which may properly be added 
here. 

As early as 1629, when the shore of the "Bay of Massachusetts" 
was an almost unbroken wilderness, the strongest settlement yet 
made upon it w^as around this hill ; and on its summit was built, 
under direction of Mr. Graves, a defensive work called the " Hill 
Fort, Avith pallisadoes and flankers," — during more than forty years 
the chief building on the hill, and one necessary for the protection 
of the settlers. Again, in 1675-76, during Philip's War, the most 
trying in which Colonial Massachusetts engaged, and when hos- 
tilities were committed by Indians within a few miles distance, this 
fort appears to have been again put in defensive order. The 
first burial-place of the town, where many of the earliest settlers 
were interred, was for several years upon this hill, until after 1640, 
when the still existing Old Burial Ground, about an eighth of a 
mile distant, was used. In 1635 Robert Hawkins built a mill upon 
the hill, and hence it was for a long time called Windmill Hill. 
In 1648 the earliest (?) schoolhouse of the town " was ordered to 



59 

be built [here] and paid foi' by a ' general rate.' " Since that date 
a public school has been maintained almost uninterruptedly on the 
hill, to provide education for the practice of civil government, the 
local seat of which has been, from the very beginning of civilization 
on the Bay, almost continuously at the base of it. The time 
when school or court or town house were removed, was when the 
town became the first great material sacrifice for American Inde- 
pendence. And as the town grew first around this hill, so, also, it 
arose there from its ruin to new life. 

The worship of the church was first beneath the Charlestown 
Oak, that grew upon the slope of the Town Hill; and all the places 
for that worship since have been upon the summit of the hill, or sev- 
enty yards from it, upon one of the slopes, or, when in the Great 
House, only about one hundred yards from it. 

No other hill throughout New England, except the hallowed 
Burial Plill at Plymouth, has a longer or more suggestive history, 
and none has one more varied. These two hills have also a peculiar 
historic resemblance. Each bore the first permanent and important 
civilized settlement on its respective bay. On both was a fortifica- 
tion, necessary for defence against Indians, during many years after 
the beginning T)f colonization upon and around them. On both 
were buried some of the earliest settlers in the region. At tlie base 
of both, the Puritan faith was long maintained in churches founded 
by members of its earliest arrived representatives. . . . 

Certainly, if in America there are few spots that have become 
invested with long, continuous, and varied and interesting historical 
associations, we may be permitted to feel that this hill is one of the 
spots thus ennobled. In " the forest primeval " of oaks that grew 
on it, the first Christian settlers made homes. On its summit they 
built a defence against savage tribes close around them. On its 
slopes they assembled in prayer and thanksgiving and fasting, and 
there they showed that strength of material resources should be 
joined with devotion of soul, and in the New World establish a 
nation for Christ. And in its stern drift, when their griefs and 
their labors were ended, were laid their mortal remains to await 
the upbuilding on earth of the city not made with human hands. 
True, indeed, "were they in their time, and . . . God them de- 
fended." And those who in later time enter upon the precious 
inheritance their endeavors secured, and who can see and enjoy the 
blessings it brings, may well guard and honor this ground that bears 
consecration by them and by virtues of long generations; for its 



60 

history is not alone of one local body, of one small town, or of one 
great sect, but a history rendering this low mound of earth a memo- 
rial spot of a mighty nation. 

With reverence we visit the old English Canterbury or Scottish 
lona, the Roman Janiculum or Capitoline Mount, sites where the 
Christianity of nations was — by a chosen few — founded in sor- 
row, and yet in hope, to grow and spread through great commun- 
ities that gathered around them. 

And this historical and time-honored Town Hill is truly a Can- 
terbury, an lona, not alone of the " Church of God in Charlestown," 
but of the broader church of the great American Republic; and 
both of church and of civil institutions, and of varied history and 
of noble virtues and labors, we well may esteem it and name it 

An American Shrine. 



NOTE. 

These p.ages illustrate the stability of old New England in a manner that may 
be considered worthy of some mention. 

When first, in 1073, a sermon hy a minister in Charlestown was printed in this 
country, the manuscript was taken to the College press at Cambridge. And now 
the latest one delivered in his pulpit, that is to be printed, goes to the same press. 
On it was also printed, 242 years ago, a psalm sung in the evening of this Anni- 
versary. It pleases a representative, as he may be termed, of the same church, 
to call — even after an interval of over two hundred years — and find the same 
establishment, developed in a way that would have much amazed our wise fore- 
fathers. 

The programme inserted, the one used Nov. 12, was printed by Mr. Caleb Rand, 
Main St., at the foot of Town Hill. 

This commemorative work has been printed under the care of Jas. F. Hunne- 
well, Cliairman of the Committee of Arrangements for Sunday, Nov. 12, 1882. 
The printing was finished Saturday, Dec. 2, 1882, at the University Press, 
Cambridge. 



NOV 4 1901 



250th 
ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

ORGANIZATION OF THE 

FIRST CHURCH, CHARLESTOWN, 

Nov. 2 (o. s.) 1G32. 



IN THE MEETING-HOUSE, 

Sniiday, ISTov. 12th, 1882. 



AFTERNOON, — at 3 o'clock. 
A.YTHEM. 



READIJ^G OF THE SCRIPTURES, 

By Rev. Alex. S. Twomblt, 

Of the Winthrop Church, Charlestown. 



PRAYER, 

By Rev. George W. Blagden, D. D. 

Of the Old South Church, Boston. 



Ode b}- Miss Mary Devens Balfour, will be read. 



S IJ^TGIjYG. 

Hymn 1090, — "Let children hear the mighty deeds." 



SERMOJY 
By Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D. D. 
Of the First Church, Cambridge. 



SIJVGIJ^G. 

Hymn 180, — "How firm a, foundation." 



BENEDICTION. 



EVENING-^t 7 o'clock. 



VOLUNTARY,— ORGAN. 



READING OF THE SCRIPTURES, AND PRAYER. 



Psalm 44, from the Bay Psalm Book. 

The earliest New Enshiud Version of the Psalms, Cambridge, 1G40. The first 

book printed witliiu the limits of the United States. 

Wee, with our eares have lieard, o (iod, 

our fathers liave us tokl, 
what works thou diddeft in their da3-es, 

in former daj'es of old. 

H(yw thv hand drove the heathen out, 

and them thou planted haft ; 
hoio thou the people didft afflict, 

and thou didft them out-cast. 

For they got not hy their owne fword 

the lands potfeffion, 
neither yet was it their owne anne 

wrought their salvation : 

But thy right hand, thine arme alfo, 

thy countenances light ; 
becaufe that of thine owne good will 

thou didft in them delis-ht. 



A BHIEP ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OP THE FIRST CHURCH, 
B3' James F. IIunnewell. 



si3Nro-i3:src3-. 

Hymn 1019, Sabbath Hymn Book. 



NOV 4 1901 



ADDRESSES 

By Rev. Rufus Ei.lis, D. I)., 

Of the First Church, Boston. 

And Rev. A. S. Freeman, D. D., 

A descendaut of Rev. Thomas Prentice, (1st eh. 1739-82.) 

Rev. A S. TwoMBLY. 



" Coronation," comTpoacd by Oliver Holden, Cliarlestown, ITD.'?. Words from 
" Selections" by Rev. Wra. Collier, Charlestown, 1812. 

ALL-liail the power of Jesus' name ! 

Let angels prostrate fall ; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

Let every kindred, eveiy trilio, 

On this terrestrial ball, 
To him all majestry ascribe. 

And crown him Lord of all. 

O that, with j^onder sacred throng, 

We at his feet may fall ; 
There join the everlasting song, 

And crown him Lord of all. 



ADDRESSES 
By Hon. Charles Devens, 
Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D. D. 



siosro-insro-. 

"Old Hundred." " 



BENEDICTION. 



NOV 4 i-jw-. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

. mm mil iiiiniiii mil mil mil mil mil IIIM i III! 



014 013 483 1 



^ 



